Shepard Alonzo Mount (1804-1868) was a National Academy of Design-trained American artist during the mid-nineteenth century that painted favorable genres of realism during the time such as still-life and landscapes. He found inspiration from subjects and themes found in local areas around him. He was best known for portraiture. Mount was highly regarded for his ability to capture a meticulously rendered likeness and personality of his portrait subjects.

Mount was born on July 17, 1804, in Setauket, New York. He was one of five children of Julia Ann Hawkins (1782-1841) and Thomas Shepard Mount (1778-1814). Other siblings include eldest Henry Smith Mount (1802-1841), Robert Nelson (1806-1883), the prominent artist William Sidney Mount (1807-1868), and Ruth Hawkins (1808-1888). Until the death of their father Thomas Shepard in 1814, the family owned and operated an inn and farm. Shortly after his death, they moved to Stony Brook, New York, to live with Julia Ann’s parents Ruth and Jonas Hawkins. Shepard’s introduction to the fine arts would come through more practical craftsmanship.

Julia Ann apprenticed her son Shepard to a carriage builder named James Brewster in New Haven, Connecticut. Shepard worked for Brewster from 1821 to about 1828 trimming carriage interiors. This experience helped refine Shepard’s eye for color theory, style, and design.

In 1827, Shepard ended his apprenticeship and reunited with his brothers Henry and William in New York City where he enrolled in drawing classes at the National Academy of Design alongside William. His brother, Henry had opened a business of his own in ornamental painting with William working alongside him; in the workshop there, all three brothers would practice their drawing in the evenings after closing.

In 1828, Shepard and William decided to open a portrait studio at 15 Cherry Street in New York City. After the portrait studio closed due to a lack of success, the brothers relocated to Athens, Pennsylvania. Shepard returned to New York not long after where he began studying portrait painting with Henry Inman.

In the earlier period of his career Shepard focused on producing still-life paintings for exhibition. Mount’s first exhibited work was in 1829 at the Academy, titled Still Life; Composition. He was heavily influenced by his older brother Henry.

Shepard Mount received a great deal of recognition for his still life paintings of fish. In a letter to his brother William Mount, he described his awareness of his skill as he wrote, "You must allow me to brag a little on fish as I sometimes think (and not without some reason) that they are the only subjects I can paint really well."

Shepard had a great deal of admiration for nature, evident in his landscape paintings. Though it was his genre of choice, he rarely exhibited them. His painting, Hudson River Scene, finished in 1861, depicts a golden past. Two ornately dressed Native Americans gaze across the Hudson River. In the river below he placed a man in a rowboat as a reference to the journey through life, and to represent himself in his piece. This was a favored theme of his which he frequently recreated in landscapes. In this particular scene, his subject matter symbolizes the passage through time and the fading of the golden age into modernity. Shepard created most of his landscapes based on the Susquehanna River close to the New York-Pennsylvania state line near Athens, Pennsylvania.