MS01.01.03.B01.F25.047

21

(SLIDE #34) [u]The Bones Player[/u] was painted in 1856 and so
was (SLIDE #35) the [u]Banjo Player[/u]. Other works such as (SLIDE #36)
[u]Dawn of Day[/u] which was painted eleven years later suggests that
Mount became interested in the use of the black image as a political
statement, perhaps to show the lack of political astuteness
on the part of the Black race. But one could also imply a longing
for the nostalgic master-servant relationship as suggested in the
long sleep. To Mount, the painting showed the Republican rooster
after the Democratic victories trying to awaken the Negro race.
Mount felt the crowing to be of no avail. He was painting not a
sleeping black man but one who was dead. Mount painted the [u]Dawn of Day[/u] one year before his death with occured on November 19, 1868.

Eastman Johnson, a contemporary of Mount, was a man a little
less than two decades Mount's junior. A point of interest here is
that Johnson did choose to paint some subjects very much in the
genre of those painted by Mount. He was a more meticulous craftsman
than Mount often permitting his work to be influenced by his
association with other artists. (SLIDE #36) This is his study of [u]Negro
Boy[/u] [DELETED: was completed and] Johnson did a painting called
(SLIDE #37) [u]The Young Musicians[/u] in which a small black child
and man are seen
listening in the background to the music. (SLIDE #38) [u]A Ride for
Freedom - Fugitive Slaves[/u] was completed in 1863 and is said by
the artist to be a scene he witnessed at Centerville, Virginia on
Manassas. 15 Johnson was interested in black life and is well known