The Tough Story - Scene in a Country Tavern
1837
Painter, American, 1807 - 1868

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.

West Building Main Floor, Gallery 71
Artwork overview
-
Medium
oil on wood
-
Credit Line
-
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.) -
Accession
2014.79.28
Artwork history & notes
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
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American Painting from 1700 to 1900, Newark Museum, 1930-1931, unpublished checklist, as The Long Story.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.
American Life in a Century of American Art, Memorial Art Gallery, Rochester, November 1935, no. 29, as The Long Story.
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.
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
New Eyes on America: The Genius of Richard Canton Woodville, Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, 2013, unnumbered catalogue.
American Journeys: Visions of Place, Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, 21 September 2013-28 September 2014, unpublished checklist.
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.
Inscriptions
lower left: Wm. S. Mount - / 1837
Wikidata ID
Q20186290