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Lot Essay
William Sidney Mount painted The Young Traveler in 1854, when the artist was at the height of his artistic powers and he had earned the reputation as America's leading genre painter. During this period Mount lived and painted in Stony Brook, Long Island, an area that the artist drew on for subject matter. These scenes form a lasting image of the customs, countryside, people and places of the artist's rural world. In this bucolic, agrarian setting, just prior to the Civil War, Mount painted some of the most optimistic and highly sensitive depictions of American rural life, such as The Young Traveler.
The Young Traveler depicts a young man kneeling to tie the laces of his leather shoe. At his side rests his traveling pack; these modest possessions are bundled in a brightly colored kerchief and tied to a stick to sling over his shoulder during his travels. The young fellow is smartly dressed - he wears a dark vest highlighted with a red back, an element that adds a bright element of color to the composition. His trousers are neat and clean, his shirt is freshly laundered, and he wears a fine straw hat.
These elements suggest the young man is not a road-weary tramp, but rather a respectable young man setting out on the road, dressed in a new suit of clothes to begin his professional career. The young traveler is perhaps making his way to one of the many affluent cities that attracted so many men during the years prior to the Civil War. The tone of the picture is one of optimism and success for the future - a young man with his life ahead of him starting along the road of adulthood.
The 1850's was a decade of great productivity for Mount. During this period he created compositions that described the quiet, peaceful beauty of an agrarian democracy, yet that also suggested the changes evident from nascent industrialization. While the young traveler depcited in the composition has come from a prosperous rural family, he seems to be leaving behind those comforts for new challenges far away from home.
Always sensitive to the human condition, in painting the simple gesture of a young man bending down to tie a shoe, Mount creates an image evocative of the subject's future and the changes taking place in rural America during the years prior to the Civil War.
The Young Traveler depicts a young man kneeling to tie the laces of his leather shoe. At his side rests his traveling pack; these modest possessions are bundled in a brightly colored kerchief and tied to a stick to sling over his shoulder during his travels. The young fellow is smartly dressed - he wears a dark vest highlighted with a red back, an element that adds a bright element of color to the composition. His trousers are neat and clean, his shirt is freshly laundered, and he wears a fine straw hat.
These elements suggest the young man is not a road-weary tramp, but rather a respectable young man setting out on the road, dressed in a new suit of clothes to begin his professional career. The young traveler is perhaps making his way to one of the many affluent cities that attracted so many men during the years prior to the Civil War. The tone of the picture is one of optimism and success for the future - a young man with his life ahead of him starting along the road of adulthood.
The 1850's was a decade of great productivity for Mount. During this period he created compositions that described the quiet, peaceful beauty of an agrarian democracy, yet that also suggested the changes evident from nascent industrialization. While the young traveler depcited in the composition has come from a prosperous rural family, he seems to be leaving behind those comforts for new challenges far away from home.
Always sensitive to the human condition, in painting the simple gesture of a young man bending down to tie a shoe, Mount creates an image evocative of the subject's future and the changes taking place in rural America during the years prior to the Civil War.