Born on a farm in Setauket, Long Island, William Mount became what art historian Matthew Baigell described as the "foremost American genre painter." When other artists were trying to copy European academic subjects of history, religion, and literature, he stayed in America and focused on the daily lives of East Coast people.

Many of his paintings expressed moralistic and political views, and he was also the first major American artists to portray black people with dignity although he opposed abolition of slavery. Because of his humble subject matter and skillful realistic execution, he was well received by an American public of the era of Jacksonian democracy. His serene agrarian paintings were also a wel...