b. 1852 d. 1919
Site Affiliation: Weir Farm National Historical Park, Bush-Holley House
Julian Alden Weir was an influential and beloved presence in the art world. He was part of a distinguished family of artists, a founding member of The Ten American Painters, adviser to several major American art collectors, a president of the National Academy of Design, and a president and trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Born in 1852, he studied at the National Academy of Design in New York and in 1873 traveled to Paris and worked under Jean-Léon Gérôme at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. A painter of great breath with a love for experimentation, Weir’s interest in landscape grew in the 1880s when he explored pastels in the outdoors at his home in Branchville, CT. There he adopted Impressionism in plein air paintings of his farm. His works include over 500 oil paintings, as well as pastels, watercolors, and lithographs. Weir’s art can be found in museums around the world and in private collections.
Primary Medium: Sculpture, Painting, Printmaking
Primary Stylistic Term: American Impressionist, Social Realist, Realist
HAHS Affiliations: Weir had connections to Bush-Holley House, Florence Griswold Museum, and Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park
Fun Fact: Julian Alden Weir and his artist friends called their farm “The Land of Nod,” and used the phrase to title artwork inspired by the local landscape.
Recommended Publications: J. Alden Weir: An American Impressionist by Doreen Bolger Burke (1991); The Life And Letters Of J. Alden Weir (Library of American Art) by Dorothy Weir Young (1971); A Connecticut Place: Weir Farm, An American Painter’s Rural Retreat by Nicolai Cikovsky Jr. (2000)