William Sidney Mount, The Power of Music (1847)


William Sidney Mount, The Power of Music - oil on canvas, 1847; 17 x 21; Century Association, New York; image scanned from reproduction in James Thomas Flexner's The Wilder Image (1962), p. 33, from a photograph in the Metropolitan Museum, NY.


(Click on the small image above to see a larger image.)

A newspaper paragrapher wrote the following about the "listening Negro" in this painting: "A brown jug and ax standing near inform us that he has been to dinner after chopping all the morning, filled his jug with blackstrap or a mixture of vinegar, water, molasses, and ginger,...and was about to resume his labor for the afternoon when he was arrested by the notes of the violin. He has got his 'stent' for the day, but thinks he can listen a little longer, work all the harder, and get through before sunset." (Quoted in Flexner, p. 32.)


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Last modified: Friday, 22-Jun-2001 06:32:54 EDT