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The Power of Music

William Sidney Mount · 1847

William Sidney Mount: American, 1807 - 1868

UnclassifiedUnited States

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William Sidney Mount

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The Power of Music — William Sidney Mount

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The Power of Music

1847

oil on canvas · The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland

Artwork details and sources
Dating
Exact year
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
Framed: 67 x 78 x 7.5 cm (26 3/8 x 30 11/16 x 2 15/16 in.); Unframed: 43.4 x 53.5 cm (17 1/16 x 21 1/16 in.)
Collection no.
1991.110
Attribution
By the artist
Image rights
CC0 1.0License details

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund. Cleveland Museum of Art. CC0; compressed study reproduction.

Collection: The Cleveland Museum of Art

About this artwork

The Power of Music — William Sidney Mount. 1847.

Medium: oil on canvas. Dimensions: Framed: 67 x 78 x 7.5 cm (26 3/8 x 30 11/16 x 2 15/16 in.); Unframed: 43.4 x 53.5 cm (17 1/16 x 21 1/16 in.).

Collection record: The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland. Museum connection according to this source; current display unverified.

Set in rural Long Island before the Civil War, Mount's complex painting presents an African American laborer listening intently to a fiddle tune enjoyed by white men. While a love of music unites the figures in a bond of shared humanity, the two races occupy different spaces--one inside, one outside, both separated by a barn door--effectively symbolizing the pronounced divisions in America at the time.

Source: official collection record. Metadata selected and normalized by Artline from the source export, accessed 10 September 2026; no museum endorsement. Reproduction rights are separate.

Location checked Sep 10, 2026. This does not indicate whether the work is on display.

Artwork sourcesImage source

Leonard C. Hanna Jr. Fund. Cleveland Museum of Art. CC0; compressed study reproduction.