WILLIAM SIDNEY MOUNT (1807-1968)
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Any Fish Today?1857
Oil on canvas |
ARTWORK
A boy stands in the open doorway of a country house holding a string of fish. In the entry, we can see a chair with a book on it, a bright floor covering, and several tools by the door. Happy and healthy looking, the boy appears to be dressed for work in a jacket and cap. Perhaps he is earning money by selling fish that he has enjoyed catching himself, perhaps he is about to speak to the person who lives in the house. The work seems to celebrate the values of living in harmony with the outdoors and hard work.
ART HISTORY
During the nineteenth century, the expanding United States was becoming ever more cosmopolitan and industrialized. A growing number of citizens could afford to buy art for their homes, and the market had expanded beyond portraits. Images of the majestic wilderness and works that celebrated the values of ordinary Americans marked a national pride. Genre scenes (or scenes of everyday life), such as Any Fish Today? were very popular. City dwellers often enjoyed idealized scenes of nature and country life, from landscapes to images of simple rural pleasures. Genre scenes were often imbued with a moralizing tone, industry versus idleness. Children, such as the young man depicted here, were often included representing a certain innocence.
ARTIST
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William Sydney Mount grew up in New York and became the foremost painter of genre scenes (scenes of daily life of ordinary people) in the United States. Largely self-educated as an artist, Mount went to work with his brother in a sign painting business. He later achieved some success as a portrait artist and eventually was able to make a living as a genre painter, gaining many followers. Living in rural Stony Brook, New York, William knew well the country life that he painted.
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CONNECTIONS
As opposed to the young man on the left selling fish in his free time, the boys on the right in Mount’s The Truant Gamblers, 1835 (New York Historical Society) are gambling when they should be in school. The farmer walking up seems poised to break up the fun. Scenes and stories of young people’s lives were important in nineteenth century America. Some decades after William painted Any Fish Today, Mark Twain wrote The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn, in which the lives of boys growing up in rural America made for marvelous stories.
Another painting in the Museum’s collection that depicts a young person working is John George Brown’s Shine Mister, 1905. This boy looks happy and healthy, but the truth is that shining shoes in a big city would have been a very difficult life for a child.
Another painting in the Museum’s collection that depicts a young person working is John George Brown’s Shine Mister, 1905. This boy looks happy and healthy, but the truth is that shining shoes in a big city would have been a very difficult life for a child.
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William Sidney Mount, Any Fish Today?, 1857, oil on canvas; William Sidney Mount, The Truant Gamblers, 1835, oil on canvas; John George Brown, Shine Mister, 1905.
DISCUSSION
What is going on in this picture? What time of day do you think it is? What is the boy doing? Have you ever sold anything? Whose house do you think this is? What do you think he is going to say to them?