After Dinner

On view in the American Art before 1900 galleries

“My violin has enabled me to see a great deal of charac­ter,” William Sydney Mount observed about the revelatory power of music. Poised at the center of the painting, the violinist lulls his listeners with his melody. Full bellies and glasses of claret also account for the drowsy mood. The high hat and side-whiskers of the man on the left mark him as middle class, while the red cap and coarse peacoat of the cigar-smoker on the right identify him as working class. Mount draws upon recognized clichés but avoids caricature in por­traying these two social types.