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Three light-skinned men, one with his head and knee bandaged, sit and stand around a rusty, free-standing stove in a room with wide plank floors in this horizontal painting. In the center of the room and painting, glowing embers burn in the box-like stove and a long chimney pipe extends up off the back. A glass with amber liquid, a clay-brown mug, and a long, white pipe rest on top of the stove. To our left of the stove, the injured man sits on a broken-backed chair with his feet angled to our right. He leans forward and points at the man sitting across from him with his right hand. In his left hand, farther from us, he holds a half empty glass, also with amber-colored liquid. His head is wrapped in white cloth and his left knee in a red cloth. He rests that foot on the platform beneath the fireplace, and a wooden crutch leans on his leg. He has ash-brown hair and a five o’clock shadow. He has a rose-pink cravat tied at his throat and wears a cream-colored jacket over a white vest, olive-green pants, and brown shoes. To our right of the stove, a second man sits on a stool, his body angled to our left. He leans forward toward the other man with his feet straddling the platform under the stove. One hand is propped on his thigh and he leans on his other leg with his elbow, smoking a pipe held in that hand. He has curly blond hair, long sideburns, a long, prominent nose, and smoke wafts from his pursed lips. He appears to look past the injured man. He wears a camel-brown coat, charcoal-gray pants, and black shoes. A third man stands behind the smoking man. His body is angled to our right so he stands with his back to the injured man, has face in profile. His head is tipped down so his eyes are hidden under the brim of his hat, and he smiles slightly. He wears a dark brown cloak trimmed with fur and a fur hat with ear flaps folded up. In front of the stove, fire tongs, a log, and wood shavings litter the floor. To our left of the injured man, a black top hat lies on its side with playing cards and a spotted red handkerchief spilling out. Along the back wall, to our right, a built-in cabinet is filled with clear and dark glass bottles and small wooden barrels. A notice has been affixed to the taupe-brown wall, beyond the stove. It begins, “LONG ISLAND RAILROAD,” and is then indistinct. Two other slips of paper with indistinct writing have been nailed to the wall nearby. The artist signed the painting in the lower left corner: “Wm. S. Mount 1837.”

The Tough Story - Scene in a Country Tavern, 1837

William Sidney Mount

West Building, Main Floor - Gallery 71

A disheveled figure with knee and head injuries and a crutch sits in a mostly empty tavern. Holding a glass of hard cider, he tells his tale to the tavern keeper, the younger man across from him. Behind them, a third man seems to be listening—but keeping his distance. A railroad schedule on the wall suggests that the standing figure will soon travel on.

As the artist explained, the older man persists in “entertaining his young landlord with the longest story . . . having fairly tired out every other frequenter of the establishment.” Mount was a visual storyteller whose keen observations of American life captured the public’s imagination.

Dive deeper

In the years leading up to the Civil War, William Sidney Mount was America's most celebrated painter of genre scenes, which are views of everyday life. His work was admired for its ability to amuse audiences with complex verbal puns and stereotypical American characters. Messages in his works were often veiled, requiring viewers to puzzle out the meanings on their own. Mount offered a rare explanation for The Tough Story in a letter to his patron Robert Gilmor Jr., detailing the setting as a Long Island tavern and the three men as the tavern keeper (right), a traveler (standing), and an "old invalid . . . entertaining his young landlord with the longest story he is ever supposed to tell, having fairly tired out every other frequenter of the establishment."

As a painting about conversation, this is a work that marries content with form. The barfly's exhausting tale is echoed in the room's empty space, its dullness matched by the monotonous colors of the wall and floorboards. Although the men are united in a classic triangular composition, the stovepipe at the center divides their space. On the left, damage and decay surround the storyteller, apparent in the bandages around his neck and knee, the worn hat, and his broken chair. By contrast, the other two men share more comfortable surroundings, including warmth from the glowing stove and the well-stocked tavern shelves. This separation invites the viewer to laugh along with the pair on the right, perhaps at the storyteller's expense. This painting was well received by its patron and critics alike. Proud of his successful marriage of form and content, Mount referred to this work as his "most finished painting yet."

Object Data

Medium

oil on wood

Dimensions

overall: 42.5 × 55.9 cm (16 3/4 × 22 in.)

framed: 66.4 × 79.7 × 13 cm (26 1/8 × 31 3/8 × 5 1/8 in.)

Credit Line

Corcoran Collection (Museum Purchase, Gallery Fund)

Accession Number

2014.79.28

Artists / Makers

William Sidney Mount (painter) American, 1807 - 1868

Image Use

This image is in the public domain.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .

Detail Information

Inscription

lower left: Wm. S. Mount - / 1837

Provenance

Commissioned 1837 by Robert Gilmor, Jr. [1774-1848], Baltimore; by descent to his nephew, Charles Smith Gilmor [1817-1866], Baltimore; (Freyer & Bendann, Baltimore); purchased 20 October 1874 by the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; acquired 2014 by the National Gallery of Art.

Associated Names

Corcoran Gallery of Art
Freyer and Bendann
Gilmor, Charles Smith
Gilmor, Jr., Robert

Exhibition History

1838: Thirteenth Annual Exhibition, National Academy of Design, New York, 1838, no. 308.

1840: Fifth Exhibition of the Artists' Fund Society of Philadelphia, 1840, no. 38, as The Old Story.

1848: First Annual Exhibition, Maryland Historical Society, Baltimore, 1848, no. 208.

1855: 8th Annual Exhibition: Foreign Paintings from Private Galleries: Pictures Belonging to the Gilmor Family, Maryland Institute for the Promotion of the Mechanic Arts, Baltimore, 1855, no. 14.

1893: World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago, 1893, no. 198, as The Long Story.

1931: American Painting from 1700 to 1900, Newark Museum, 1930-1931, unpublished checklist, as The Long Story.

1935: American Genre: The Social Scene in Paintings and Prints (1800-1935), Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, March-April 1935, no. 77, as The Long Story.

1935: American Life in a Century of American Art, Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, November 1935, no. 29, as The Long Story.

1935: Exhibition of American Painting, M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, June-July 1935, no. 176, as The Long Story.

1936: Main Currents in the Development of American Painting, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, 1936, no. 32, as The Long Story.

1940: Golden Gate Exposition, Fine Arts Building, San Francisco, 1940, as The Long Story.

1942: Catalogue of an Exhibition of Drawings and Paintings by William Sidney Mounty, 1807-1868, Brooklyn Museum, 1942, no. 45, as The Long Story.

1945: William Sidney Mount and His Circle, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1945, no. 4, as The Long Story.

1947: The Mount Brothers: An Exhibition, Suffolk Museum, Stony Brook, 1947, no. 70, as The Long Story.

1949: An Exhibition Commemorating Robert Gilmor II of Baltimore (1774-1848), Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, unpublished checklist.

1950: American Processional, 1492-1900, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, no. 138, as The Long Story.

1951: Life in America, Denver Art Museum, 1951, unnumbered catalogue, as The Long Story.

1955: Rediscoveries in American Painting, Cincinnati Art Museum, 1955, no. 65, as The Long Story.

1957: Exhibition of American Classics of the Nineteenth Century, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute, Utica; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond; Baltimore Museum of Art; Currier Gallery of Art, Manchester, 1957-1958, no. 16, as The Long Story.

1959: Loan Exhibition. Masterpieces of the Corcoran Gallery of Art: A Benefit Exhibition in Honor of the Gallery's Centenary, Wildenstein, New York, January-March 1959, unnumbered catalogue, repro., as The Long Story.

1959: The American Muse: Parallel Trends in Literature and Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, April-May 1959, no. 126, as The Long Story.

1966: Past and Present: 250 Years of American Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1966, unpublished checklist.

1969: Painter of Rural America: William Sidney Mount, 1807-1868, National Gallery of Art, Washington; City Art Museum of Saint Louis; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; M.H. de Young Memorial Museum, San Francisco, 1968-1969, no. 12, as The Long Story.

1976: The American Genius: W.W. Corcoran, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1976, unnumbered catalogue.

1980: La Pintura de los Estados Unidos de Museos de la Ciudad de Washington [Painting in the United States from Public Collections in Washington], Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, 1980-1981, no. 9, as The Long Story.

1981: Of Time and Place: American Figurative Art from the Corcoran Gallery, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Cincinnati Art Museum; San Diego Museum of Art; University of Kentucky Art Museum, Lexington; Hunter Museum of Art, Chattanooga; Philbrook Art Center, Tulsa; Portland Art Museum, Oregon; Des Moines Art Center; Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, FL, 1981-1983, no. 2, repro., as The Long Story.

1984: The Taste of Maryland: Art Collecting in Maryland, 1830-1934, Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore, 1984, no. 13, as The Long Story.

1993: The Century Club Collection, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 1993, unpublished checklist, as The Long Story.

1998: William Sidney Mount: Painter of American Life, New-York Historical Society, New York; Frick Art Museum, Pittsburgh; Amon Carter Museum, Fort Worth, 1998-1999, unnumbered catalogue, as The Long Story.

2004: Figuratively Speaking: The Human Form in American Art, 1770-1950, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2004-2005, unpublished checklist.

2005: Encouraging American Genius: Master Paintings from the Corcoran Gallery of Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; Parrish Art Museum, Southampton; Mint Museum of Art, Charlotte; John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, 2005-2007, checklist no. 17.

2008: The American Evolution: A History through Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 2008, unpublished checklist.

2013: American Journeys: Visions of Place, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 21 September 2013-28 September 2014, unpublished checklist.

2013: New Eyes on America: The Genius of Richard Canton Woodville, Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, 2013, unnumbered catalogue.

Bibliography

1882: Macleod, William. Catalogue of the Paintings, Statuary, Casts, Bronzes, &c. of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Washington, 1882: 62, no. 67, as The Long Story.

1887: Macleod, William. Catalogue of the Paintings, Statuary, Casts, Bronzes, &c. of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Washington, 1887: 64-65, no. 67, as The Long Story.

1947: Corcoran Gallery of Art. Handbook of the American Paintings in the Collection of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Washington, 1947: repro. 28, 29, as The Long Story.

1959: Corcoran Gallery of Art. Masterpieces of the Corcoran Gallery of Art. Washington, 1959: 49, repro., as The Long Story.

2011: Strong, Lisa. "William Sidney Mount, The Tough Story - Scene in a Country Tavern." In Corcoran Gallery of Art: American Paintings to 1945. Edited by Sarah Cash. Washington, 2011: 17, 30, 82-83, 107, 258-259, repro.