- J. Alden Weir
Infobox Artist
bgcolour = #6495ED
name = J. Alden Weir
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caption = J. Alden Weir in the late 1800s
birthname =
birthdate = birth date |1852|8|30|
location =
deathdate = death date and age |1919|12|8|1852|8|30|
deathplace =
nationality = American
field =Impressionism ,Painting
training =
movement =
works =
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influenced =
awards =, a loosely-allied group of American artists dissatisfied with professional art organizations, who banded together in 1898 to exhibit their works as a stylistically-unified group.
Weir was born and raised in
West Point, New York , the son ofRobert Walter Weir , a professor of drawing. His older brother,John Ferguson Weir , also became a well-known landscape artist who painted in the styles of the Hudson River and Barbizon schools.Julian Weir received his first art training at the
National Academy of Design in the early 1870s before enrolling at theÉcole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1873. While in France he studied under the famous French artistJean-Léon Gérôme , and became good friends withJules Bastien-Lepage . Weir also encounteredimpressionism for the first time, and reacted strongly: "I never in my life saw more horrible things...They do not observe drawing nor form but give you an impression of what they call nature. It was worse than the Chamber of Horrors."Weir met
James McNeill Whistler in London before returning to New York City in 1877. His works as a young artist centered onstill life and the human figure, which he rendered in a realist style not unlike the work ofÉdouard Manet . In the 1880s Weir moved to ruralRidgefield, Connecticut and strengthened his friendship with artistsAlbert Pinkham Ryder andJohn Henry Twachtman . The art of Weir and Twachtman was especially well-aligned, and the two sometimes painted and exhibited together. Both taught at the Art Students League.By 1891 Weir had reconciled his earlier misgivings about impressionism and adopted the style as his own. Through the remainder of the 1890s and 1900s Weir painted impressionist landscapes and figurative works, many of which centered on his Connecticut farms at Branchville and Windham. His style varied from traditional, vibrant impressionism to a more subdued and shadowy
tonalism . He also became skilled atetching .In 1912 Weir was selected the first president of the Association of American Painters and Sculptors, but resigned a year later following the association's sponsorship of the modernist
Armory Show . Weir later became president of theNational Academy of Design . He died in 1919.Today Weir's paintings are in the collections of the
Metropolitan Museum of Art , New York; thePhillips Collection , Washington, D.C.; theSmithsonian American Art Museum , Washington, D. C.;Brigham Young University 's Museum of Art, Provo, Utah; and theWadsworth Athenaeum , Hartford, Connecticut. Weir's farm and studio at Branchville are protected as theWeir Farm National Historic Site , the Weir family continue ownership of the Windham farm.ee also
*Art Students League
*Ten American Painters
*Society of American Artists
*American Impressionism Further reading
*cite book | author=Burke, Doreen Bolger | title=J. Alden Weir: An American Impressionist | location=Cranbury NJ | publisher=Associated University Presses and Cornwall Books| year=1983| id=ISBN 0-87413-220-7
*cite book | author=Gerdts, William H. | title=American Impressionism | edition=2nd Edition | location=New York | publisher=Abbeville Press Publishers| year=2001| id=ISBN 0-7892-0737-0
*cite book | author=Larkin, Susan G. | title=The Cos Cob Art Colony | location=New York | publisher=the National Academy of Design | year=2001 | id=ISBN 0-300-08852-3External links
* [http://www.nps.gov/wefa/ Weir Farm National Historic Site]
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