WHO
was J. Alden Weir?
Julian Alden Weir was born in 1852 in West Point, New York.
He grew up in a large family where he was the 13th of 16 children. His
father, Robert W. Weir, taught drawing at the United States Military
Academy. Julian studied painting with his father and in New York City
at the National Academy of Design. In 1873 he traveled to Paris, France
to study painting at the prestigious École des Beaux-Arts.
In
1877, at the age of 25, Weir returned to the United States to begin
his career as an art instructor and painter of portraits and still lifes.
The next year he began a 20-year teaching career at the Art Students
League in New York. Weir was an influential member of the art world
throughout his adult life. In addition to teaching at the Art Students
League, among other things, he also taught at Cooper Union, served as
president of the Society of American Artists (1882) and the National
Academy of Design (1915), was elected to the American Academy of Arts
and Letters (1915), and was a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum of
Art (1915-1917). In his lifetime, Weir was honored as a gifted painter,
teacher, leader, and friend who helped bring other artists and American
art into world prominence.
WHAT
is Weir Farm National Historic Site?
Weir Farm National Historic Site preserves and interprets the summer
home and studio of the American painter J. Alden Weir (1852-1919).
It is the only National Park Service site in the United States dedicated
to the home and workplace of an American painter. |
 |
J. Alden Weir acquired
the farm in 1882, over 118 years ago. The place is special because Weir
and his artists friends who visited were inspired by the farm’s
everyday beauty and domestic landscape, and also because artists have
continued to live and work at Weir Farm since Weir’s time.
The
American Impressionists of Weir’s era painted familiar, cultivated
landscapes located in their own backyards. Through the painters’
eyes, the ordinary places in Connecticut and elsewhere became part of
everyone's sense of what is beautiful in the American landscape. The
farm served as an extensive palette; its buildings, stone walls, and
gardens were all elements in the painters’ compositions.
Three generations
of artists have called Weir Farm home. After J. Alden Weir, his daughter
Dorothy, a painter, and her husband artist/ sculptor Mahonri Young lived
and worked at the site. In the 1930s they built a large studio to accommodate
Mahonri’s This is The Place monument. Artists Doris and Sperry
Andrews befriended Mahonri and bought the property after he died in
1957. The Andrews continue to maintain a life-residency at the site.
Today,
the National Park Service and its private partner, the Weir Farm Trust,
offer a variety of art and other programs that allow visitors to explore
Weir Farm and take their place in the Weir Farm story. All are welcome
to set up an easel on the landscape and find their inspiration. The
Park Service and the Trust offer tours, exhibitions, and children’s
art classes. Professional artists of all backgrounds are welcome to
apply to the Trust’s Visiting Artist and Artist-in-Residence programs.
WHEN:
Click
here to see the TIMELINE
from "J. Alden Weir and Branchville, A Pictorial Chronology"
from A Connecticut Place: Weir Farm
WHERE:
How to get to
Wier Farm
