During the mid-nineteenth century, the United States was undergoing many cultural changes. Towns were becoming cities, mass production was becoming prevalent, and many variations of people were coming to live. This made for major changes in social structure. There seemed to be a high class, the “elites”, and the lower class. However, this spawned a need for changes in this structure, something to bridge the gap. William Sidney Mount, captured this bridge of sorts in …showed first 75 words of 656 total…

…showed last 75 words of 656 total…homogenize his society by leveling the extremes of both elitism and anti-intellectualism (Oedel, Gernes, 145).” Even though Mount’s technique is seen as “elementary”, and he tried to overcome his “deficiency as a colorist” as one critic put it, he is able to “draw hierarchical relationships in his paintings only to erase them (Oedel, Gernes, 145).” In portraying the farmer and the artist as “coequals” in society, Mount creates a new class- the middle-class- through his art.