Bargaining for a Horse
Engraver Charles Burt American, born Scotland
After William Sidney Mount American
Publisher American Art-Union, New York American
Not on view
Mount's genre subject "Bargaining for a Horse" (1838; New York Historical Society) was engraved and distributed by the American Art-Union as part of a set of small prints that subscribers received in 1853. The institution boasted nearly nineteen thousand subscribers at its height in 1849–50. For an annual fee of five dollars, each member was supposed to receive a fine, large engraving, and be entered in a lottery that distributed original artworks. Aimed at educating the public about contemporary American art, the organizatin's distribution network reached every state and contributed to the creation of a national market for landscapes, genre paintings, and small bronze sculptures. The system flourished for a limited period, however, with no lottery taking place in 1851, the year that this print was announced as part of a set of small engravings titled "Gallery of American Art, No. II." It was not published until 1853, the year that the Art-Union was forced to dissolve.
