Charles Merrill Mount was born Sherman Merrill Suchow in Brooklyn, New York in 1928. Mount attended Columbia University, leaving to study at the Art Students League of New York. In addition to pursuing his own artistic career, Mount published several biographies on artists, including John Singer Sargent, Gilbert Stuart and Claude Monet.

Mount exhibited at the Guggenheim Museum and was awarded a grant from the Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship. Mount also participated in exhibitions at Newman Galleries in Philadelphia, Hotel Barbizon in New York, Capricorn Galleries in Maryland, and Grand Central Art Galleries in New York.