Artwork
Long Island Farmhouses
Long Island Farmhouses is an oil painting by the Hudson River School artist William Sidney Mount. It dates from 1862 and is held in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
About this work
A few houses and farms on Long Island, painted by William Sidney Mount in 1862. He knew the area well and worked from life, filling the scene with the small details of everyday farm life.
Subject & Meaning
The iconography is limited to these tangible elements of the countryside: the dwelling, the associated farm structures, and the vegetative landscape.
Painted in 1862, William Sidney Mount's Long Island Farmhouses is a landscape composition that visually documents the rural architecture and environment of its titular region. The work depicts a cluster of farm buildings, including a primary house, situated within a natural setting dominated by trees. As a genre landscape, the painting focuses on the straightforward representation of agricultural life, capturing the structural forms of the farmstead against the surrounding foliage.
The iconography is limited to these tangible elements of the countryside: the dwelling, the associated farm structures, and the vegetative landscape. The work serves as a visual record of mid-19th-century agrarian structures, emphasizing the physical presence of the farm within the natural world rather than employing complex allegorical symbolism.
Technique & Style
Long Island Farmhouses is rendered in oil paint on a canvas support, a medium indicated by both the catalogue entry and the Wikidata record. The painting belongs to the landscape genre, depicting a farm, house, and trees within a rural setting. No specific details about the artist’s handling, brushwork, or the current condition of the work are provided in the sources.
As a work dated 1862 and classified within the American Wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, it exemplifies mid‑nineteenth‑century American landscape painting in oil on canvas.
History & Provenance
The painting Long Island Farmhouses was created in 1862 by William Sidney Mount as an oil on canvas work measuring 55.6 × 75.9 cm. It portrays a farmhouse, a tree and surrounding landscape, fitting the genre of American landscape painting. The work was classified for The American Wing and has been part of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s collection since its acquisition, remaining on display in New York. No documentation of a specific commission survives, and the piece is catalogued simply as a Mount landscape within the museum’s holdings.
Long Island Farmhouses is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where it is classified within The American Wing. The painting has been documented in the museum's collection on Wikidata, which records its location and holdings information for the work. No specific accession number is provided in the available sources, and no exhibition history beyond its presence in the Met's collection is documented.
Overview
Long Island Farmhouses is an oil on canvas painting depicting several rural dwellings and agricultural structures. This artwork provides a glimpse into the pastoral landscape of Long Island, capturing the essence of its farming communities. Housed within the American Wing, the piece reflects a particular focus on indigenous artistic traditions and themes.
Context
As part of The American Wing, this painting contributes to a broader understanding of art produced in the United States. Its focus on regional landscape and daily life reflects a significant current in American art during its period, often emphasizing local character and observable reality. The work thus serves as a document of both artistic practice and cultural representation.
Artist & collection
Artist
William Sidney Mount (November 26, 1807 – November 19, 1868) was a 19th-century American genre painter.
