Lot Essay
Related Literature:
W. Gerdts, Painters of the Humble Truth: Masterpieces of American Still Life 1801-1939, Columbia, Missouri, 1981, pp. 71-72
This painting is listed in the Frick Art Reference Photofiles, no. 80797.
The three Mount brothers, Sheppard Alonzo, William Sidney and Henry Smith, all investigated still life painting in their careers. Henry Smith Mount began painting still lifes as early as 1827 and continued throughout his career. Sheppard Alonzo, known predominantly as a portrait specialist, also executed still lifes periodically throughout his career. It is the still lifes of William Sidney Mount that are the best known, most skilled, and rarest of the three.
William Sidney painted his Flower Piece in 1832, and executed Spring Bouquet (Museums at Stony Brook, Long Island) in 1847, but most of his still life paintings were executed in the 1850s, and only a dozen or so are now known.
The compositions are generally bunches of flowers, casually grouped and depicted largely from the point of view of nature studies. Few, if any others, depict the flowers in vases in a formal traditional composition as the present example. In Painters of the Humble Truth: Masterpieces of American Still Life 1801-1939, Dr. William Gerdts discusses William Sidney Mount's still lifes: "As independent still-life notations, they have a vivacity of paint quality, vivid coloration, and freshness unlike the scientific exactitude of most still lifes of their period, calling to mind the similar nature studies, including arrangements of wildflowers, by John Constable, the great English landscape specialist of the nineteenth century." (Gerdts, p. 72)
W. Gerdts, Painters of the Humble Truth: Masterpieces of American Still Life 1801-1939, Columbia, Missouri, 1981, pp. 71-72
This painting is listed in the Frick Art Reference Photofiles, no. 80797.
The three Mount brothers, Sheppard Alonzo, William Sidney and Henry Smith, all investigated still life painting in their careers. Henry Smith Mount began painting still lifes as early as 1827 and continued throughout his career. Sheppard Alonzo, known predominantly as a portrait specialist, also executed still lifes periodically throughout his career. It is the still lifes of William Sidney Mount that are the best known, most skilled, and rarest of the three.
William Sidney painted his Flower Piece in 1832, and executed Spring Bouquet (Museums at Stony Brook, Long Island) in 1847, but most of his still life paintings were executed in the 1850s, and only a dozen or so are now known.
The compositions are generally bunches of flowers, casually grouped and depicted largely from the point of view of nature studies. Few, if any others, depict the flowers in vases in a formal traditional composition as the present example. In Painters of the Humble Truth: Masterpieces of American Still Life 1801-1939, Dr. William Gerdts discusses William Sidney Mount's still lifes: "As independent still-life notations, they have a vivacity of paint quality, vivid coloration, and freshness unlike the scientific exactitude of most still lifes of their period, calling to mind the similar nature studies, including arrangements of wildflowers, by John Constable, the great English landscape specialist of the nineteenth century." (Gerdts, p. 72)