MS01.01.03.B01.F25.045

19

In 1845, Mount painted (SLIDE #26) [u]Dance of the Haymakers[/u]
in which the young black barndoor drummer is seen as a principal
figure. A second black person watches from the hayloft.
(SLIDE #27) [u]The Power of Music[/u] was painted in 1847 and shows
an attentive black man charmed by the music he hears. Not
well received by critics of the time, [u]The Power of Music[/u]
elicited the following caustic words from the critic of
[u]The Literary World[/u] on June 5, 1847, "This picture will insure
Mount a permanent reputation, if he fishes for clams all the
rest of his life." 14 (SLIDE #28) Close Up of the [u]Power of Music [/u].
(SLIDE #29) [u]California News[/u] was painted in 1850 and is
reminiscent in feeling of Richard Caton Woodville's (SLIDE #30)
[u]War News from Mexico[/u] painted two years earlier.

This handsome portrait of a young black man playing a
violin was painted in 1850. The violin is only slightly
different in shape from the one Mount made and had patented
at the U.S. Patent Office in Washington on June 1, 1852.
The work is entitled (SLIDE #31) [u]Right and Left[/u].
(SLIDE #32) [u]The Lucky Throw[/u] is a lithograph by LaFarge & Co.
done in 1851 after a painting of the same title by Mount.
It illustrates the quality of the kind of reproduction that
William Sachus was referred to in his earlier correspondence
with Mount when he offered to reproduce Mount's work for
public consumption. The picture of a young black holding the
fowl he won in the throw of coins is believed by some to have
been the prototype on which stereotype images of Blacks were
based and copied later on business and post cards that
advertised products such as hams, stoves, turkeys, pills,