America / 1847
The Power of Music
The Cleveland Museum of Art catalogs The Power of Music as painting (America · 1847).
Mount was an accomplished fiddle player and even patented a new design for the instrument.
A CLOSER LOOK
The museum identifies this painting as oil on canvas and credits William Sidney Mount (American, 1807–1868).
The museum's collection notes: 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.
FOLLOW THE EVIDENCE
The Cleveland Museum of ArtThe Power of MusicOriginal explanation based on the sources above. Images carry their own reuse terms.