Cider Making 1840-41 William Sidney Mount American Though this scene convincingly captures a moment in rural life, its inspiration lay in the political maneuvering surrounding the hard-fought presidential election of 1840. The image of down-home simplicity embodied by the cider makers was evoked by the Whig candidate, William Henry Harrison, promoted as a common man who preferred a log cabin and hard cider to the supposed excesses of the Democratic White House of Martin Van Buren. The work was commissioned by the prominent New York businessman and Whig leader Charles Augustus Davis. Davis was the creator of the folksy "Jack Downing" character, whose musings broadened Whig appeal through attacks on the disastrous Jacksonian financial policies responsible for the Panic of 1837. Mount, a conservative Democrat who opposed the populist Jackson, punctuated his painting with details, such as the prominently dated cider barrel, possibly intended to allude to the larger political context. In 18