'Eel Spearing at Setauket (Fishing Along Shore)' by William Sidney Mount, 1845. Courtesy of the Fenimore Art Museum, Cooperstown, NY
Glenda Dickerson introduced the members of the Christian Avenue community seated in pews on the theater stage and set the tone for the play. Courtesy of Three Village Historical Society.
Lynda Gravatt portraying Rachel Holland Hart. Courtesy of Three Village Historical Society.
Lucy Hart Keyes, (88) interviewed by oral historian Fai Walker. Mrs. Keyes said, “My mind is so clear - bout as clear about back then as it is about now.” Courtesy of Three Village Historical Society.
A scene from the play. Photo from Three Village Historical Society
A scene from the play. Courtesy of Three Village Historical Society.
By Beverly C. Tyler
In 1986, Glenda Dickerson, a theater arts professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, began an oral history project with her students, interviewing members of the African American Christian Avenue community. This resulted two years later in a four-day theater program which she described as a “living exhibit…a portrait of a community past and present.”
“When William Sidney Mount painted ‘Eel Spearing at Setauket (Fishing along Shore)’ in 1845 on contract for George Washington Strong he made, as far as we can tell, an exact representation of the landscape, but the people – painted later in his studio- are the past. The boy is thought to be William Sidney Mount himself and the woman, by tradition and folklore, is Rachel Holland Hart. They are perhaps a look back at an even earlier time when the 19th century was only in its infancy.” according to the exhibit and play “Eel Catching in Setauket” by Glenda Dickerson. It was Mount’s painting that inspired Dickerson to title her project “Eel Catching in Setauket.”
Before the theater experience, theater-goers were treated to a bus ride from the university to the African American Christian Avenue community, with a tour of the Bethel AME Church, graveyards and Legion Hall and then a meal shared with members of the community.
In the play, the actors portraying the members of the Christian Avenue community, the members themselves who contributed their oral histories, and the theater-goers, described by Dickerson as “eel catchers,” were together on the stage as joint parts of the play. Dickerson wrote in the souvenir journal and theater program, “An eel catcher is a person who loves people and old pictures and history and characters and folklore and drama and textures and art and fun and laughter and doesn’t mind experiencing them all at one time.”
Theodore Green, a descendant of Rachel Hart, was Glenda Dickerson’s guide and advisor, for the eel catching oral history project. In his story “The Hart-Sells Connection” in the Three Village Historical Society book “William Sidney Mount: Family, Friends, and Ideas”, Green wrote, “The woman is recognized to be Rachel Holland Hart, a housekeeper for Judge Selah Brewster Strong 3d…At the time the picture was painted, she was fifteen years of age…In planning the picture, Mount may have recalled scenes from his own childhood, when he was taught fish-spearing by an old Negro by the name of Hector.”
In the opening of the theater experience, Lynda Gravatt, portraying Rachel Holland Hart said the words Mount credits to Hector, “Slow now, we are coming on the ground. On sandy and gravelly bottoms are found the best fish. Look out for the eyes, there! Ha! Ha! He will grease my pan tonight.”
Seated behind Gravatt were the members of the Christian Avenue community. For the play, they took premier places on benches and pews in the Stony Brook University Art Center’s theatre as a dramatic feature of the presented living history.
As described by Dickerson, “The purpose of this living exhibit is to paint a portrait of a community, past and present. When you walk into the exhibit, it will be like walking into [the] souvenir journal. You will hear some of the same words. You will see the same photographs. You will see the stories leap to life as though from your own imagination.
“The photographs, the artifacts and the actors will tell stories that are sepia-toned, ebony, butterscotch and tea-rose, just like the women and men who shared their memories and their personal belongings with the project.
“The personal artifacts in the exhibit are not only displayed under glass to be contemplated in solitude and silence; they are living testaments to the warmth and generosity of Christian Avenuers. The prayer caps and church hats worn in the drama are not costumes, but actual items worn by the community. The pages of the souvenir journal, which document Bethel AME Church’s long and rich history will come to life as you read them. The eel spear Rachel Holland Hart carries is an authentic one.
“The magic circle of Christian Avenue – past and present – will stay with you. The trees have dappled the Avenue in the same way for a hundred years; the houses have held their secrets that long. Bethel’s bell has toiled seemingly forever. And the people have walked the Avenue from Setauket’s beginnings. Some of the folks lay in Laurel Hill, others in Bethel Cemetery; some have moved to far-flung places, others are still there. In my vision, they are one with the eelers and other workers who first came to Setauket, not voluntarily, and stayed to make history. In my vision, the autumnal elders will live forever, safe in the magic circle, shining like springtime. On Christian Avenue, it is forever Indian summer.”
Beverly C. Tyler is Three Village Historical Society historian and author of books available from the Three Village Historical Society, 93 North Country Rd., Setauket, NY 11733. Tel: 631-751-3730. WWW.TVHS.org
Bus transport will take visitors to all three sites and educators and artists will be on hand in the galleries. This event is free for all — no registration is required.
Participants can check in at either location. Let a staff member know you are there for the LIM x Zuccaire Gallery Afternoon of Art. A staff member will also direct you to the shuttle bus. To check in at the Long Island Museum, head directly to the Art Museum building. At the Zuccaire Gallery at the Staller Center, you can check in at the front desk of the gallery. The first bus will leave from the Zuccaire Gallery at 12:30 pm.
For more information, call 631-751-0066 (LIM) or 631-632-7240 (Zuccaire Gallery)
*Please note that the historic Hawkins-Mount house is not handicap accessible.
'Right and Left,' 1850, by William Sidney Mount
Image courtesy of the LIM
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'Right and Left,' 1850, by William Sidney Mount
Image courtesy of the LIM
Portrait of Captain Jonas Smith by William Sidney Mount. Image courtesy of the Long Island Museum
Portrait of the Mount family. Image courtesy of the Long Island Museum
'Self Portrait with Flute', 1828, by William Sidney Mount. Photo courtesy of Long Island Museum
'The Banjo Player,' 1856, by William Sidney Mount
Image courtesy of LIM
By Tara Mae
Art is more than a communion between artist and audience. It is a point of entry into understanding the past, assessing the present, and perhaps even informing the future. A Noble Art: A New Look at the Portraits of William Sidney Mount on display at Long Island Museum’s Art Museum (LIM) through December 15, examines this dynamic through a 27-piece exhibit.
Considered to be the premier American genre painter, William Sidney Mount (1807-1868), who was born in Setauket and spent much of his time in Stony Brook, was a prolific portraitist who expressed the emotional essence of a person and period.
Mount’s first solo show at the LIM since 2018, A Noble Art encompasses paintings, lithographs, drawings, correspondence, and other artifacts from the 19th century Long Island artist.
“Not many museums in the country have this depth of materials for a single artist, including personal effects…The exhibit showcases rich archival materials and works,” said Joshua Ruff, Co-Executive Director at the LIM and the curator of this exhibit.
LIM houses the largest repository of Mount materials. A Noble Art spotlights prize items of its collection, such as Right and Left, which has been displayed in previous shows, as well as four pieces that have not previously been on public view at the museum. Among that selection are portraits of Long Island’s reputed first millionaire Captain Jonas Smith and his wife Nancy Williamson Smith, acquired by the LIM at auction in 2022.
In addition to new acquisitions, the exhibit also reflects new information gathered in the ongoing scholarship about the 19th century Long Island native’s work, particularly his portraiture and its subjects.
“Our Mount artwork and artifacts are the jewels of our collection — something we are really fortunate to have. It has been a long time since we had an exhibit focused on Mount’s portraiture,” Ruff said. “There have been some changes in research and improvement of knowledge about the portraits’ subjects, so it feels like time to introduce them to visitors.”
A primary motivating factor for assembling this exhibit is the new details that have been excavated about the individuals immortalized in Mount’s paintings. In recent years, especially with the publication The Art of William Sidney Mount: Long Island People of Color on Canvas by Katherine Kirkpatrick and Vivian Nicholson-Mueller, particular attention is being paid to the Black and Indigenous people who Mount represented rather than caricatured.
“These are sensitive, not stereotypical portrayals…when you really look, there is a lot going on, like subtle symbolic references to the backgrounds of his subjects and nuanced details,” Ruff said.
From an artistic family, Mount’s most well-known portraits are frequently of people he knew, and their warmth adds elements of intimacy and liveliness. His portraits convey both dynamically diverse and culturally unifying insights into the persons, settings, and circumstances of Long Island during the 1800s.
A Noble Art even offers context for Mount’s own kin. His family portraits from the 1840s provide a glimpse at a creative clan and further emphasize his progression as an artist. Mount’s sister Ruth and niece Evalina were talented artists in their own right. Mount’s brother Shepard was also a portraitist, and the show features one of his pieces.
Yet, the heart of the exhibit remains Mount’s ability to forge a connection between creator, subject, and observer. Personable renderings illuminate the evolution of Mount’s artistic intricacies, spanning decades of his work from a self-portrait made when he was 21 years old to two of the three members of his musician series: The Banjo Player and Right and Left. (The third painting of this trio, The Bone Player is on display at the Museum of Fine Arts Boston.)
His work invites the viewer to appreciate an eternal moment and recognize enduringhumanity. “With portraiture you might anticipate an element of sameness, but if you really look at Mount’s portraits there is a lot happening within them. We are excited to share this opportunity for discovery with the public,” Ruff said.
The Long Island Museum is located at 1200 Route 25A in Stony Brook. Hours are Thursday to Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Admission is $15 adults, $10 seniors and students, children under age 6 are free. For more information, call 631-751-0066 or visit longislandmuseum.org.
Portraits of Mrs. Nancy Williamson Smith and her husband Captain Jonas Smith by William Sidney Mount,1836
By Tara Mae
An opportunity to own priceless art is a chance to be part of living history. It does not come without a cost, but it can be worth the expenditure. On Saturday, Oct. 22, starting at noon, South Bay Auctions of East Moriches will offer such a possibility when it auctions off portraits of Captain Jonas Smith and his wife Nancy Williamson Smith of Stony Brook by local 19th century artist William Sidney Mount.
Portrait of Captain Jonas Smith
“Mount is significant to both art and local history. It is not often that his paintings come up for auction,” said Joshua Ruff, Co-Executive Director of the Long Island Museum in Stony Brook which has the largest collection of Mount’s paintings, drawings, correspondence, and archives.
Primarily known for his genre paintings, Mount was born in Setauket in 1807 and spent many years living in Stony Brook in between and after brief periods in New York City. He painted the places and people he knew, frequently of the Three Villages. Initially drawn to history painting, which he greatly admired, Mount’s portraiture was not born of his inherent interest in the material but rather a timeless dilemma for so many artists: his other work was not selling and Mount needed to earn a living.
Mount’s first portrait subjects were easily acquired; he initially painted himself and close relatives before offering his services to a better paying public. Among his early patrons were members of the Weeks, Mills, Strong, and Smith families, all of whom have prominent ties to the Three Villages.
Captain Jonas Smith and his wife Nancy Williamson Smith were particularly lucrative commissions. Captain Smith, who owned and operated a fleet of merchant ships that sailed internationally, is considered to be Long Island’s first self-made millionaire.
Their oil portraits were most likely done in Mount’s studio, according to Jean-Paul Napoli, Co-Owner and President of South Bay Auctions. Mount apparently charged Captain Smith $70 for the pair in 1836, the equivalent of about $2000 today, when adjusted for inflation.
Portrait of Mrs. Nancy Williamson Smith
Privately owned, the portraits were obtained by the auction house from a collector who had moved from Long Island to Boston. “The owner felt they should be offered on Long Island where they originated,” said Napoli.
Also up for auction is two portraits by Mount’s brother Shepard Alonzo Mount; a painting of Port Jefferson Harbor by William Moore Davis; two lithographs by Stow Wengenroth; a recently uncovered oil painting by Robert Motherwell; and works by Whitney M. Hubbard, Caroline Bell, Julia Wickham, William Steeple Davis and Joseph Hartranft.
The artwork is available for viewing at no charge from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. through Oct. 21 and by appointment. “I think this auction has a nice collection of fine art from Long Island and New York artists. Even if you are not interested in acquiring anything, it is an opportunity to see works that will in most cases not be in the public eye after the sale,” Napoli added.
South Bay Auctions is located at 485 Montauk Highway, East Moriches. Participants in the auction may bid in person or live online at www.Invaluable.com and www.LiveAuctioneers.com. Telephone and absentee bidding is also available. For more information, call 631-878-2909.
Idyllic, intimate scenes of small town life and sublimely serene landscapes. Warmly illuminated faces, too often absent in American fine art, immortalized for generations. William Sidney Mount’s art both embraced and defied the standards of the 19th century.
Through this prism, the Ward Melville Heritage Organization (WMHO) will present a special program titled “William Sidney Mount and Long Island’s Free People of Color” at the Brewster House (c. 1665) in Setauket on Saturday, Sept. 24.
The cover of Katherine Kirkpatrick and Vivian Nicholson-Mueller’s new book.
The talk by Katherine Kirkpatrick and Vivian Nicholson-Mueller, co-authors of The Art of William Sidney Mount: Long Island People of Color on Canvas, will explore the identities and lives of the 19th century Black, Native-Black and Black-White people who Mount portrayed in many of his works as well as their ties to the Three Village community.
During the presentation’s two sessions, from 1 to 2:30 p.m. and 2:30 to 4 p.m., Kirkpatrick and Nicholson-Mueller will discuss researching and writing their book, which delves into some identities of Mount’s most notable subjects: people who are largely missing, erased, otherized, or caricatured in American art of the 1800s.
Each session will be followed by a Q&A segment, book signing, artwork presentation, and tour of the Brewster house.
“[Kirkpatrick and Nicholson-Mueller] put forward research that makes you want to ask more questions and think about who these people were…What were their lives like? Who were the other people that lived here? What were their relationships like?” said WMHO’s President Gloria Rocchio.
The event will be held at the historic Brewster House in Setauket, which Mount painted in ‘Long Island Farmhouses’ (see cover photo)
Among the individuals that the book and presentations will highlight are Henry Brazier, the left-handed fiddler in Right and Left (a portrait that is a stark departure from the racist caricatures of Black fiddlers typical of the time); George Freeman, the lively musician in The Banjo Player; Robbin Mills, the attentive outside audience in The Power of Music; and, Rachel (who’s last name will be discussed at the presentation), the poised fisherwoman in Eel Spearing in Setauket.
Mount’s portrayal of these people is noteworthy in its normalcy. Rather than racist caricatures, at the time a prevalent American representation of any nonwhite person, he painted people as they were: members of the local community.
So it is arguably a bit jarring to learn that, despite what much of his art might imply, Mount was not a abolitionist, an incongruous revelation that Kirkpatrick and Nicholson-Mueller address in the book and will acknowledge in the talks.
“Mount was a complex man,” Kirkpatrick said. Despite the multitudes he contained, Mount’s artistic aims appear simpler: inspired by historical paintings he admired, Mount painted what he knew.
‘Long Island Farmhouses’ by William Sidney Mount (1862-63)
And, Mount knew Long Island, particularly the Brewster house, which is now owned by WMHO and was restored in 1968 to appear as it did in his painting Long Island Farmhouses which is now hanging in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Mount even parked his mobile studio on the Brewster property while painting other farmhouses.
Beyond his appreciation for the landscape, Mount was also acquainted with the Brewster house’s inhabitants. George Freeman of The Banjo Player and Rachel, of Eel Spearing in Setauket, who may have been a Brewster, were just two residents that Mount painted, according to Kirkpatrick and Nicholson-Mueller.
While some structures featured in his landscapes, like the Brewster House, have had both their facades and histories preserved, not much has been cohesively published about the people who populated his paintings, many of whom were friends, neighbors, and townspeople.
‘The Power of Music’ by William Sidney Mount, 1847
Rocchio sees “Color and Canvas…” as a way of correcting the apparent information vacuum. “I am looking forward to seeing people’s reactions to learning more about who lived and worked in the Brewster House…Any time we can bring out new information about the properties that we own, we are incredibly interested in the projects,” Rocchio said.
It was such a search for knowledge that first drew educator and genealogist Nicholson-Mueller to the project. While on a quest for genealogical discovery, she learned that she is probably a descendant of Mount, the Brewsters, and many of the people he captured on canvas, including Mills, of The Power of Music.
Having already bonded over a shared loved of history after meeting at the home of a mutual friend, she teamed up with Kirkpatrick, a historical fiction and nonfiction author, who grew up in Stony Brook.
‘The Banjo Player’ by William Sidney Mount (1856)
“The research was a gift to myself; and it is Vivian’s and my gift to the people of the Three Villages, St. James and Smithtown. The details we put together will broaden people’s perspectives and knowledge of familiar places,” Kirkpatrick said.
Each woman already had connections to the WMHO and were looking to work on a project together. Kirkpatrick is the author of Redcoats and Petticoats, a children’s book told through a young boy’s perspective about the British occupation of Long Island during the American Revolution and the Culper Spy Ring. Research and other projects have put her in contact with the WMHO over the years.
Nicholson-Mueller has worked as a volunteer docent for the WMHO at the Thompson House, another historic property it owns. She has also conducted research on the Brewsters and Thompsons.
So, history is both a personal interest and professional passion for Kirkpatrick and Nicholson-Mueller. “Color on Canvas…” is a continuation of their efforts to make the past come alive for modern audiences by broadening the palette of people’s understanding.
“I am hoping that people learn about Mount as an individual; about the lives and history of the people of color who lived in Brookhaven during this period and have heretofore been neglected or ignored,” Nicholson-Mueller said.
Tickets to “William Sidney Mount and Long Island’s Free People of Color” at the Brewster House are $8 per person; space is limited and anyone interested in attending must register in advance by calling 631-751-2244.
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There will two additional local events to celebrate the book launch of The Art of William Sidney Mount: Long Island People of Color on Canvas:
On Sunday, October 2nd, the Long Island Museum, 1200 Route 25A; Stony Brook, will host an Author’s Talk on Oct. 2 at 2 p.m. It will include a presentation by Kirkpatrick and Nicholson-Mueller as well as a book signing, banjo and fiddle music, refreshments and a gallery tour, where The Banjo Player and Right and Left will be on display. Fee is price of admission. Visit wwwl.longislandmuseum.org.
On Monday, Nov. 14, at 7 p.m., the Three Village Historical Society will host a Zoom lecture with the authors. The event is free for TVHS members, with a $5 suggested donation for nonmembers. Registration is through www.tvhs.org/lecture-series. For more information, call 631-751-3730.
'The Mount House', 1854 by William Sidney Mount (1807-1868),
The Long Island Museum of American Art, History, & Carriages. Bequest of Ward Melville, 1977.
By Corey Geske
“When Gen. George Washington was passing through Stony Brook . . . Mother was at that time a little school girl, and stood and courtesyed [curtsied] to him while he raised his hat to her salutation — at the same time, her companions ran away.”
— William Sidney Mount, 1859
American genre painter William Sidney Mount and English born watercolorist Alexander George Milne preserved the earliest known visual and recorded perspectives near their homes of what is today known as the Culper Spy Trail, the route followed in April 1790 by America’s first president George Washington on what was ostensibly a ‘victory tour’ of Long Island. Today, circumstantial evidence begs two questions: did Mount know the victory tour was a ‘cover story’ for thanking Long Island spies who helped win the American Revolution; and did Mount know his grandfather Jonas Hawkins was a spy?
When General Washington acknowledged the salutation of Julia Ann Hawkins (1782-1841), Mount’s future mother, on an April day in Stony Brook, he was, in effect and likely without knowing it, thanking the daughter of one of his spies. About eight years old at the time, Julia exhibited courageous respect while her “companions ran away.” She personified the courage of her father, Major Jonas Hawkins (1752-1817). Although not yet achieving military rank, Hawkins risked his life from December 1778 through mid-August 1779 as a courier in Washington’s Culper Spy Ring, which gathered and relayed intelligence from British occupied Long Island to the General’s headquarters during the war.
In 1854, when William Sidney Mount (1807-1868) painted his ancestral family home, The Mount House, he chose the location where Julia may have seen Washington and the artist recorded the perspective Washington could have had from his carriage when he doffed his hat to Julia as she curtsied. Mount’s view includes a young girl seated on the roadside wall, a seeming leader of two boys who, in a visual counterpoint to his mother’s runaway companions, direct their attention toward her, while a gentleman wearing a Peter Stuyvesant-type coat surveys the scene from afar, as a distant reminder of the Hawkins family that helped found (1655) the Town of Brookhaven.
A few miles to the south in Smithtown, Alexander George Milne (1801-1865), an émigré from England c. 1834-1836, recorded, on at least four occasions, the route west in the direction Washington traveled, careful to focus on the architectural lines of the Widow Blydenburgh’s Tavern where Washington stopped about an hour after passing the Hawkins’ home. Milne’s expansive view of Smithtown, Long Island was completed in watercolors, c. 1857, three years after The Mount House. The Widow Blydenburgh’s Tavern is seen to the far right. In front of it, Milne detailed a sapling tree. Fenced for protection from roving farmstock, it was one of the nearly sixty ship-mast locust trees planted by Judge J. Lawrence Smith and Joseph Howell along Smithtown’s main thoroughfare, from April 17 to 22, 1855 and 1856, coincidentally, the April anniversaries of Washington’s tour, for the two years following Mount’s 1854 painting.
Milne’s inclusion of a sleigh with two horses halted before the Blydenburgh Tavern was a reminder of the four grey horses drawing Washington’s coach painted with his coat of arms and allegorical scenes of the four seasons by Florentine artist Giovanni Battista Cipriani. The President recorded the day in his diary: “Friday 23d. About 8 Oclock we left Roes [Tavern, East Setauket], and baited the Horses at Smiths Town, at a Widow Blidenbergs [Blydenburgh]–a decent House 10 Miles from Setalkat [Setauket]–thence 15 Miles to Huntington where we dined . . .”
Mother’s courage, grandfather’s daring as Culper Spy, breathe life into Mount’s painting
Mount’s memory of his mother’s story was prefaced, “Good introduction to my sketch –,” which suggests this was an idea for what appears to have been a painting of Washington that was never done. Mount did, however, represent Washington in a finished work that offers a psychological clue to a conjectural Mount family view linking Washington’s 1790 visit to the espionage ring his grandfather Jonas Hawkins supported.
‘Great-Grand-Father’s Tale of the Revolution – A Portrait of Rev. Zachariah Greene’, 1852, by William Sidney Mount. Image courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Mount’s 1852 portrait of Great-Grand-Father’s Tale of the Revolution includes a Jean-Antoine Houdon-inspired bust of the General indicated by the extended hand of the 94-year-old friend of Washington, the Rev. Zachariah Greene (1760-1858) of the Setauket Presbyterian Church.
Mount portrays Greene seated at a table reminiscing to his three great-grandchildren in a pose similar to that of Washington, c. 1789-1796, in The Washington Family (National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.) by Edward Savage whose work was popularized and even reversed by later artists in an oval format that echoed Mount’s portrait of Greene. The last sitting for the President’s portrait by Savage was April 6, 1790, just before Washington’s tour, with perhaps the very same hat tipped to Julia Hawkins, placed at Washington’s extended hand upon the table where a plan for the new capital city of Washington was studied by the family. Mount translated the General’s hat as Greene’s upturned hat on a nearby chair.
In his younger days, Greene had helped pull down the statue of King George III in Bowling Green after a reading of the Declaration of Independence in July 1776; then served as a corporal for Massachusetts and Connecticut in the American Revolution, being twice wounded at the battle of White Marsh, near Philadelphia, and at White Plains. He’d later become ‘a soldier of the cross’ and preach at Setauket Presbyterian Church for 52 years, according to Mount’s notes. (WSM 1852 in Frankenstein, 32). Years after Washington’s tour, fragments of his coach were made into walking sticks, possibly like the one held by Rev. Greene.
‘Washington Family’, c. 1865 after Edward Savage; by Frederic B. Schell; engraved by A.B. Walter. Once hung in Danford’s Inn (buildings from 1870) reception area before renovations. Private Collection.
Mount’s choice of an openbacked bust approximating a mask allows the viewer to see the reflections of the vase beyond it, the whole of which, vaguely reminiscent of anthropomorphic composte portraits by artists of 16th Century Italy, hints not only of the shared reflections of Greene and Washington, but also Mount’s mother.
Greene bore the same Christian name as Mount’s ancestor Zachariah Hawkins, an early settler of Setauket, thereby offering the artist a parallel perspective of the great-grandchildren around Greene in the personas of ‘Mount’s mother’ relating her memory of Washington to ‘her son’ writing down and sketching her story.
The mask-like bust of Washington serves as an allegorical reminder of the ‘masks’ that were the cover stories, donned by spies in the field to conceal their intelligence-work. Though likely unknown to Mount, but in keeping with his allusion to the Mount family story, spycraft called ‘masks’ employed by British General Sir Henry Clinton against the Culpers, used a cut paper silhouette to delineate specific words on a piece of correspondence to create a message within an otherwise harmless ‘cover story.’
Ironically, in 1856, Mount was asked to paint a mural for the Senate chamber’s eastern staircase in the nation’s Capitol building, picturing the death of Clinton’s spymaster Major John André. Dressed as a civilian behind American lines, André was searched and the documents found wedged in his boot, together with intelligence from the Culper Spy Ring, revealed Benedict Arnold’s plans to betray West Point in 1780. Andre’s capture and fate by hanging as a spy was the daily risk of members of the Culper Spy Ring under British occupation
Two artists’ legacy today
Milne, who provided the earliest known views of Smithtown, rests today with his family in the churchyard of the Hauppauge United Methodist Church (1806), the oldest church building in the township of Smithtown.
The church and cemetery were recently placed on the National Register of Historic Places (2020); and Milne’s work, once collected by Nelson and Happy Rockefeller, is preserved in private collections. His work is also at the Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts in The Horace P. Wright Collection; The Long Island Museum, Stony Brook; and the Smithtown Historical Society.
‘Smithtown, Long Island’, c. 1857 attributed to Alexander George Milne. Courtesy of Michele and Donald D’Amour Museum of Fine Arts, Springfield, Massachusetts. The Horace P. Wright Collection. JohnPolakPhotography.com.
Looking west in his painting, not one of the buildings Milne depicts in Smithtown that Washington would have seen, still stands in situ. Washington’s carriage would have travelled around the corner where the Presbyterian church (built in 1827 after the tour) stands today, to head west to Huntington and New York City where the first capital of the new nation was then located.
Farther west on Main Street, the Arthur House (1752), eligible for the National Register of Historic Places, is the only 18th century building in Smithtown, located where it stood when Washington passed it in 1790. It was the home of Mary Woodhull Arthur (1794-1853), daughter of Abraham Woodhull, code name Samuel Culper, Senior, Washington’s chief spy.
Owned by the Smithtown Central School District, it has been vacant for years, diagonally across from Town Hall. My calls for restoration and a recent request that its name be officially changed to the ‘Mary Woodhull Arthur House,’ to recognize Culper, Senior’s daughter, a true Daughter of the American Revolution, have received no response.
The Blydenburgh Tavern (c. 1688) was demolished in 1907; and to the near left of it in Milne’s view, the two-story Epenetus Smith Tavern was moved twice, the first time thanks to the preservation efforts of Mary Miller, mother of Captain James Ely Miller (1883-1918), the first American aviator killed in combat over France in World War I. In 2017, Captain Miller posthumously received the first Distinguished Flying Cross presented to a WWI recipient. The Miller Home (built before 1873), once located across from the Smith Tavern, was demolished in the 1960s.
In 2017, the North Shore Promotion Alliance and The Ward Melville Heritage Organization were instrumental in getting Spy Trail signs installed, commemorating the importance of the Culper Ring along the route of Washington’s tour. A focal point on that trail, the William Sidney Mount House is a National Historic Landmark. The scene is set for Mount’s painting that never was.
Mount’s idea for a work commemorating Washington’s 1790 tour and the courage of Julia Hawkins would be an excellent reason for North Shore artists to open their sketchbooks and step up to their easels in a salute to the traditional autumnal ‘Spy Days’ sponsored by the Three Village Historical Society, Tri-Spy Tours, The Long Island Museum and The Ward Melville Heritage Organization.
About the author: Independent Historian Corey Geske of Smithtown was researching a book on Alexander George Milne when area historic preservation became a priority following demolition (2016) of the Jonas Hawkins, Jr. home (before 1858) called Sedgemere at Head of the Harbor, Town of Smithtown. In 2016, she proposed recognition of the New York Avenue School as an historic structure and restoration of the Arthur House in situ, proposing their inclusion in a National Register Historic District in downtown Smithtown. She prepared the report resulting in the determination of the Smithtown Bull as Eligible for the National Register (2018); wrote the nomination for the Byzantine Catholic Church (1929) by McGill and Hamlin, and its Rectory, the former Fred Wagner Residence (1912) by Gustav Stickley, that were placed on the National Register (2019); and worked with church Trustees to nominate the Hauppauge United Methodist Church and Cemetery to the National Register (2020).
Looking at a painting is like a window to another time — the world is frozen, just as the artist remembers it. But of course, nothing stays the same in real life, and the scenes depicted in paintings will often change as well.
With this in mind, Joshua Ruff of the Long Island Museum in Stony Brook had an interesting idea: What if they tried to return to the scenes in some of the museum’s paintings to see what they look like now?
The Mount House in Stony Brook as it stands today.
The result is Twin Peeks: Scenes Seen Twice, Paintings and Photographs, an exhibit of works from the museum’s permanent collection laid side-by-side with recent photos of their locales. The unique show opens in the Art Museum’s Main Gallery on March 19.
Pursuing this idea was the beginning of a months-long adventure for Ruff, Deputy Director, Director of Collections and Interpretations at the LIM and curator for the exhibit. After choosing more than 60 paintings to include in the show, including artwork from the museum’s coveted William Sidney Mount collection, he had to figure out what — or where — the artists were painting.
The Mount House by William Sidney Mount, 1854
“Artists didn’t leave behind GPS coordinates for their work,” he joked. “There are so many scenes in our collection that are real places, but it’s not always conveyed in the title exactly where it is. Landscapes can change dramatically. We wanted to try to get as close as we could to the vantage point of the original painting, while thinking about how artists tell a story of place.”
Using maps from the approximate time period of each piece, Google’s street view feature and some research savvy, Ruff set out with his family and a camera to get the job done. It was far from easy, though — some of the locations are now on private property, inaccessible or unidentifiable. Other abstract or impressionist pieces can offer a vague sense of place without the details required to pinpoint it. Still, he did the best he could.
“We have several examples of historical photographs of certain locations, but more than 90 percent of the photographs were speculative on our part. In some cases, we may not ever be able to crack the code of where the actual spot was,” Ruff explained.
In some cases, he had to enlist the help of some friends. The museum’s conservator, Alexander Katlan, lives part-time in New England and was able to take photos to accompany two paintings by William Trost Richards. And some of the staff at the Freeport Memorial Public Library took to the water to find a match for Charles Henry Miller’s 1885 painting, “Freeport Oyster Houses.”
The site of the Setauket Rubber Factory today at the corner of Route 25A and South Jersey Avenue.
“The oyster industry thrived in Freeport in the 1800s, and our library archives include many photographs from that time, so I knew exactly where we needed to go,” said librarian Regina Feeney.
To get the right angle for the photo, the team would need a boat. They talked with the owner of a Freeport marina in search of a way to get down the Freeport River, and were ultimately connected with bayman Danny Miller. It was a chilly November day when they set sail, but armed with old maps and a sense of humor, they got the job done. The photo was taken by Jason Velarde.
The Setauket Rubber Factory by Edward Lange;
“I really enjoy now-and-then exhibits because it gives people perspective about how things have changed over time,” Feeney said. “We were happy to make a contribution, and it was fun getting out of the building and enjoying some time on the water together. We had quite the adventure.”
The exhibit is evenly divided among geographic areas, with one third focusing on the East End, one third on the middle Island, and one third on Nassau County, New York City and New England. The paintings feature a range of medium as well, from watercolor to oil and acrylic, and span in time from the 1830s through the 1970s.
“Seeing this collection of paintings really drives home the sense of how the area has evolved — some of the subjects, like the Setauket rubber factory, are gone now. Other areas that were quiet and natural are more developed now. I hope it will be enjoyable for people of all ages to reflect on the past and consider what the future will hold,” Ruff said.
In conjunction with Twin Peeks the Victoria Costigan Gallery in the Art Museum will be home to “Artists Abroad,” a mini exhibit focused on travel and foreign landscapes.
The museum’s collection includes a small, yet compelling group of works by artists who traveled abroad between the 1860s and 1960s. American artists have always been drawn to European art and landscapes. They visited museums and copied famous works of art, and roamed cities and the countryside to paint and sketch scenes of daily life and picturesque views. Sketches in ink and watercolor quickly documented form and color, with some becoming inspiration for future works in oil.
“Generally when we do an exhibit, the focus is on America or on Long Island. But the works in this exhibit were created abroad and don’t get as many opportunities for exhibition,” said curator Jonathan Olly. “You’ll get to see things you wouldn’t usually get to see here, from the Italian countryside to an Azorian mountain or Cannes as seen from the harbor — it shifts the lens to other places and perspectives.”
“Both of these exhibits are about travel in a time where we haven’t really been able to travel — we’re all a little tired of being inside, and this celebrates the joy of going outside and exploring in a safe way,” said Ruff.
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The Long Island Museum, 1200 Route 25A, Stony Brook presents Twin Peeks: Scenes Seen Twice, Paintings and Photographs and Artists Abroad when the museum reopens for the season March 19. The exhibits run through Aug. 1. Visitors are also welcome to explore the Carriage Museum; however the History Museum will remain closed.
Hours are Friday through Sunday from noon to 5 p.m. Physical distancing will be required and masks are mandatory. The LIM follows CDC-prescribed cleaning protocols for all buildings. Admission is $10 adults, $7 seniors, $5 students, children under six free. Tickets are available at the Carriage Museum entrance, credit cards only please; pre-registration is not required. For more information, visit longislandmuseum.org.
‘Eel Spearing at Setauket,’ 1845, by William Sidney Mount
The Three Village Historical Society lecture series hosts prominent and emerging historians, authors, genealogists, archeologists and storytellers from around the nation and presents topics related to local history, heritage conservation, social justice, art history, and more. For decades, TVHS public programming has provided a stimulating environment for the exploration of history and ideas that permeate the culture and community of the Three Village area, and beyond.
In early 2020, when the world went on “lock-down”, TVHS shifted gears and began hosting this treasured event virtually via Zoom on a monthly basis and the Society will continue to do so for 2021. Unless otherwise noted, all lectures begin at 7 p.m. Eastern Standard Time and will be held on Zoom and moderated by Mari Irizarry, TVHS Creative Services Director. The Virtual Lecture Series is open to public, with a $5 general admission suggested donation and is free for TVHS members. Registration is required at www.tvhs.org/lecture-series.
February 22nd
Guest Speaker: Louise Cella Caruso
William Sidney Mount: His Life and His Work
March 15th
Guest Speaker: Selene Castrovilla
Founding Mothers
April 19th
Guest Speaker: Kristen Nyitray
History of Stony Brook University
May 17th
Guest Speaker: Bill Bleyer
Culper Spy Ring and Long Island Revolutionary War Sites
Book: “George Washington’s Long Island Spy Ring: A History and Tour Guide.”
June 21st
Guest Speaker: Steve Drielak
The Alice Parsons’ Kidnapping: Long Island’s History Unsolved Mystery
July 19th
Guest Speaker: Rhoda Miller
Exploring Long Island’s Jewish History
August 16th
Guest Speaker: Darren St. George, Preservation Long Island
Jupiter Hammon Project: Confronting Slavery at Preservation Long Island’s Joseph Lloyd Manor
September 20th
Guest Speaker: Chris Matthews
A Struggle For Heritage: Archaeology and Civil Rights in Long Island Community
October 18th
Guest Speaker: Tara Rider
The Devil in New York: The Withcraft Trial of Goody Garlick
November 15th
Guest Speaker: Jeff Richman
Green-Wood Cemetery’s Civil War Project
December 14th
Frank Turano
Chicken Hill: A Community Lost to Time
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The Three Village Historical Society (TVHS), a non-profit 501(c)(3) founded in 1964 by community members, exists to educate the public about our rich cultural heritage as well as foster and preserve local history. TVHS offers museum exhibits, events, programs, archives, and other outreach initiatives to inform and enrich the public’s interest in and understanding of the vibrant past of the Three Village area along the north shore in Suffolk County, Long Island
'Fair Exchange, No Robbery', 1865, by William Sidney Mount
By Tara Ebrahimian
William Sidney Mount was an artist whose Long Island heritage was integral to his identity and his art. Most famous for his portrayals of local and natural life, Mount’s initial interest in historical paintings and his commissions for death portraiture led him to create the work that would become his legacy. What Mount witnessed and experienced determined how he rendered the realm he could control: his art.
He was born in Setauket on November 26, 1807. His parents, Julia Ann Hawkins and Thomas Shephard Mount, had a farm and also ran a store and tavern on the edge of the village green. Interested in artistic endeavors from a young age, with his family’s support, he set out to pursue that goal.
Following his father’s death in 1814, his mother returned to his grandfather’s farm in Stony Brook and Mount lived for a time with his maternal aunt and uncle, Letty and Micah Hawkins, in New York City. Micah was a playwright, composer, and musician, who encouraged Mount’s interest in music. In 1815, Mount returned to Long Island, living in his grandfather’s home until returning to Manhattan where he apprenticed to his brother Henry as a sign maker. It was during this period that Mount really began to develop his interest in painting.
‘Returning from the Orchard’, 1862, by William Sidney Mount
With Henry’s encouragement, Mount attended the American Academy of the Fine Arts exhibition at City Hall Park in 1825. This event introduced Mount to a genre of art he had not yet enjoyed: history painting. Rather than pursue a formal art education or seek tutelage from a master, Mount continued to work for his brother while teaching himself. Henry was now business partners with a painter named William Inslee, who owned a collection of prints by British artist William Hogarth, who specialized in history painting. Moved by his art as well as that of another British artist, Benjamin West, Mount copied Hogarth’s prints in order to practice his craft.
History painting is characterized by its content instead of its artistic method. This form generally depicts an instance in a narrative story rather than a specific, fixed subject such as a portrait. Until the 19th century, history painting was considered the most prestigious type of Western painting. Then, as artists pushed back against the rigid parameters of academic art standards, it became a medium mainly regarded in that milieu. This genre encompassed works that portrayed religious scenes, and Mount’s most popular history painting is of this nature.
Upon the recommendation of family friend Martin E. Thompson, Mount enrolled in the National Academy of Design, which Thompson had cofounded. At the institution Mount was able to explore his appreciation for the Grand Manner, an idealized aestheticism that drew from classicism and the art of the high Renaissance. Initially it specifically referred to history painting, but came to include portraiture. The term Grand Manner was also used by British artists and critics to describe art that incorporated visual metaphors to represent noble characteristics.
In this manner, Mount created historical paintings that were very well received. He selected scenes from classical texts that focused on topics like near-death experiences, death, and resurrection. Mount’s first notable oil painting, Christ Raising the Daughter of Jairus (1828) caused a stir when it was exhibited at the National Academy of Design; the council was stunned that a young artist with little formal instruction could produce such a work. Mount, who was one of the school’s first students, was elected an associate member in 1831.
‘Bargaining for a Horse’, 1835 by William Sidney Mount
He returned to Setauket the next year, but continued to send work to be exhibited in New York City. Mount’s history paintings were admired and respected, but they were not, apparently, particularly profitable. Perhaps impacted by the shifting opinions about historical paintings, Mount suffered a setback all too familiar to artists: his work did not sell well enough for him to make a living. So, he shifted his focus to portraiture. His first portrait subjects were easily persuaded: he painted himself and close relatives.
Portraits provided a somewhat steadier income. Among his early patrons were the Weeks, Mils, Wells, and Strong families. Mount continued to improve his technique and was happy to be back on Long Island. “I found that portraits improved my colouring, and for pleasurable practice in that department I retired into the country to paint the mugs of Long Island Yeomanry.” Mount was less enamored with the other aspect of his business: death portraiture.
Mourning portraits were paintings of the recently deceased. Frequently the subjects were shown as though they were alive, and symbolic details, like bodies of water and flowers, were used to indicate that they were not. Arguably a bit morbid, their existence was emotional: they were usually commissioned by the departed’s loved ones. It could be among the only renderings/images that existed of the recently dead.
Mount worked on commission and he did not enjoy the work, which was fraught and could be gruesome. He could be summoned to someone’s wake or deathbed to make sketches or take notes for the upcoming portrait. Once he was called to the scene of an accident to paint the likeness of a man who had been run over by a wagon. The final product did not reflect the cause and nature of the subject’s death.
The art Mount created enveloped aspects of genres he had explored earlier in his career. These experiences helped him establish the style for which he would become best known. He combined the narrative elements of the history paintings with the human interest element of the death portraiture. Without this background, he may not have been inspired to create the art that became his job and his joy.
Genre paintings, art that illustrates scenes of everyday life, became the most renowned selections of his oeuvre. Unlike his previous work, this type of art is distinguished from history paintings and portraits in that the subjects have no distinctive identities. His first foray into this type of painting, The Rustic Dance, was immediately successful and encouraged him to further explore the medium. As Mount noted in his journal, “Ideas can be found in everything if the poet, sculptor and painter can pick them out.” He captured snippets of everyday life and frequently imbued them with subtle or more overt themes of social commentary.
‘Bar-Room Scene’, 1835, by William Sidney Mount
Motivated by the natural environment and his neighbors, Mount addressed moral issues, including economic standing and disparities as well as the implied status of Black people in the area. For example, in Bar-Room Scene (1835), Mount portrays patrons in a tavern. In the foreground a presumably inebriated man in tattered clothing is encouraged to dance by threeseated men who are clearly of a higher economic class. A boy, who is standing, gazes upon him in apparent wonderment.
In the back corner, there is a young Black man standing. He is also entertained by the dancer’s antics, but he is alone, separate from the group of other men. As a free Black man, he is allowed to visit the tavern, but he remains apart from the other visitors. Through this isolation, Mount indicates that the man is not fully able to participate in the community. The topics represented in this painting were recurring in his art.
Mount’s return to the Three Villages marked a shift in the nature of his work. His exploration of slavery, racial dynamics, and rustic vignettes offer indelible insight into 19th century life on Long Island. His creative expression was a culmination of previous artistic enterprises, driven by both his own passion and financial necessity. Mount continued to paint, integrating other interests, such as music, into his art. He never married or had children and died of pneumonia on November 18,1868, at his brother Robert’s house in Setauket.
Author Tara Ebrahimian is the Education Coordinator at the Three Village Historical Society in Setauket. This article originally appeared on the historical society’s website and is reprinted with permission.
The March 22, 1840, letter from Robert Nelson Mount to his brother William Sidney Mount. No envelope was used, the letter was folded and sealed with a wax seal. Stamps were not used at this time. The postmaster signed the letter with his initials for the fee in the upper right corner of the folded letter. From the collection of Beverly and Barbara Tyler
By Beverly C. Tyler
How sweet the silent backward tracings!
The wanderings as in dreams — the meditation of old times resumed — their loves, joys, persons, voyages.
— Walt Whitman, “Memories”
The Mounts of Stony Brook were a close family throughout their lives. The children of Julia Hawkins Mount — Henry Smith, Shepard Alonzo, Robert Nelson, William Sidney and Ruth Hawkins — kept in contact with each other even when they were many miles apart pursuing their careers. There was probably no period when this closeness was more evident than during 1840 and 1841.
On Jan. 22, 1840, their grandmother, Ruth Mills, widow of Major Jonas Hawkins and mother of Julia Mount, died at the family home in Stony Brook. Her death at the age of 91 seemed to have strongly affected William Sidney Mount. According to his biographer, Edward P. Buffet:
“After the brilliant successes of the past few years (prior to 1840) Mount now suffered a slight reaction in the acclaim of his exhibits at the National Academy. His pictures, The Disappointed Bachelor, Boy Hoeing Corn and The Blackberry Girls, all fell short of his high-water mark of merit.”
Robert Nelson Mount also felt deeply the death of his grandmother. During 1840 and 1841 he was still in Georgia teaching dancing at various towns. He had left the Three Village area in October 1837, traveling south to take a job at a school. His wife, Mary, remained in Setauket, and he wrote often to her and to members of his family. In a letter to his brother William Sidney written from Macon, Georgia, March 22, 1840, he wrote:
“The two letters I have previously received from you contained intelligence of a serious nature. The last made known to me the death of our excellent grandmother. I had great hopes that I should see her again, but now those hopes are dispelled . . . we shall behold her no more. Yet in our minds she will live. Her good deeds we will not forget. Years hence we will lead to her grave the children that are yet unborn; and to them we will speak of her great kindness, and of her many virtues.”
In the same letter Robert Nelson spoke of his eldest brother Henry, a well-known artist in his own right who did not limit his talents to art alone. He wrote:
“The music you sent me I am highly pleased with . . . The two cotillions composed by brother Henry I like much, especially the 3rd No. which I think will hold place with the best cotillions of the day. I shall endeavour to arrange such a figure to it as it merits.”
On Jan. 10 of the following year, 1841, at the age of 38, Henry Smith Mount died after a long battle with tuberculosis. In his biography of the Mounts, Benjamin Franklin Thompson wrote about Henry:
“His private character was of the most unexceptionable kind — his temper mild and amiable, and in all the relations of life scrupulously honest, faithful, and affectionate. The death of such a man, under such circumstances, was generally and deeply regretted, both by his family and a large circle of acquaintances.”
Robert Nelson wrote of his brother Henry in a letter to William Sidney from Monticello, Georgia, dated March 4, 1841:
“I have received two letters from you. The last dated the 5th of February contained a delightful set of cotillions from the collection of Mr. Matherson. At first I found the 3rd and 4th numbers of those cotillions somewhat difficult to perform; but having practiced them a great deal, I am now able to run through them with tolerable ease. I thank you for having sent them to me at the time you did . . . Music that I brought from home with me, — duets, — every leaf of which, as I turn them over, reminds me of our departed brother Henry. I think how often we have tuned our instruments and played those airs together; — then they served to cheer and enliven my feelings. Now when I attempt to play them alone, I fancy I can still hear his accompaniment; — a gloom comes over my spirits . . . The remembrance of him I will ever cherish; — The music he gave me I will treasure up with a misers care. — The marks that his pencil has made upon its pages, I will never efface.”
On Nov. 25, 1841, Julia Hawkins Mount, mother of the talented brothers, died at the age of 59. Shepard wrote home to William Sidney his feelings as their mother lay near death:
“Yesterday, Elizabeth and myself wrote mother and sister Mary a long letter — took it to the post-office where we received yours with the melancholy information that our dear mother is rapidly passing away. The improvement in my health is principally owing to my being of late removed from any exciting scenes whatever, for I have shunned all such here. The world seems to be willing to think favorably of us as a family of children. — If we deserve to be thus favorably considered, how much are we indebted to our mother for its attainment. — Of late years she has had but little intercourse with the world, living almost exclusively for the well-being, and respectability of her favored children. — Mingled with her worldly sorrows she has had the consolation to witness our gratitude in the remembrance of her many virtues . . . I have been so long unemployed in painting, save upon some trifling subject which I cannot turn to immediate account, that I feel it my duty to paint if possible 2 or 3 portraits before coming home — for even amid the sorrows and vicissitudes of the world we must prepare to live on and worry through much that goes against the heart. — As this time the love of art vanishes, but the love of those who depend upon me for the comforts of life, point out the path I must tread. I have no positive engagements in the city, and should I come home at this time, I fear it would be a long while before I could feel able or composed enough to pursue my profession. Your affectionate brother — S.A. Mount.”
The Long Island Museum exhibit Walt Whitman’s Arcadia: Long Island Through the Eyes of a Poet & Painters presents chosen passages from Whitman’s writings alongside more than 20 paintings by William Sidney Mount, John F. Kensett, Lemuel Wiles and more. The stunning wooded landscapes, rustic scenery and rugged shoreline that so captivated Whitman was equally fascinating to artists from across the region.
On Saturday, July 20, from 2 to 4 p.m., the Long Island Museum, in collaboration with Red Skies Music Ensemble will present Walt Whitman, William Sidney Mount & the Sounds of the 19th Century. This research-based program weaves together an engaging narrative with live musical performance, theatrical cameos and large screen images to explore Whitman and Mount’s interconnected biographies and how music was an essential part of their creative lives. Visit www.longislandmuseum.org for details.
Beverly C. Tyler is Three Village Historical Society historian and author of books available from the society at 93 North Country Road, Setauket. For more information, call 631-751-3730 or visit www.tvhs.org.
