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Julian Alden Weir
1852–1919
BirthplaceWest Point, New York, United States of America
Death placeNew York, New York, United States of America
BiographyJulian Alden Weir essayed a variety of styles and approaches in his portraits, figural works, and landscapes, but he remains best known as an American exponent of impressionism, the use of bright color applied in textured brushwork to reproduce the effects of bright natural sunlight. Weir received his first training from his father, Robert Walter Weir (1803–1889), longtime professor of drawing at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, New York. Weir studied at New York’s National Academy of Design between 1870 and 1872, and in 1873 he departed for four years in Paris as a pupil of French academic painter Jean-Léon Gerôme (1824–1904). He also traveled in Europe to study the works of admired artists of the Baroque era. With his thorough grounding in academic method, he was baffled by impressionist painting when he first encountered it in Paris in 1877, finding the new art’s rejection of drawing in favor of direct application of paint to canvas especially abhorrent. He was deeply influenced, however, by the outdoor painting method and delicate tonalities of Jules Bastien-Lepage (1848–1884).
Within a few years, Weir’s attitude toward impressionism shifted, possibly under the influence of the fresh aesthetic of Japanese prints, which he greatly admired. By the early 1880s, he was visiting Paris not only to show his work in the prestigious Salon exhibitions but to acquire paintings for a New York collector by French painter Edouard Manet (1832–1883), whose work influenced his own. In New York, Weir painted commissioned portraits and stil lifes and taught art to support himself. He exhibited at the National Academy of Design while also becoming active in the independent Society of American Artists. Following his marriage in 1883, Weir divided his time between New York, the farm he purchased in Branchville, Connecticut, and his wife’s family home in Windham, Connecticut. These rural locales provided the setting in which Weir, along with such friends and colleagues as John Henry Twachtman and Theodore Robinson, helped develop a distinctly American approach to impressionist landscape painting.
In the late 1880s, Weir took up the print medium of etching and also worked in pastel, a dense, dry, colored chalk. On the occasion of his first important solo exhibition, in 1891, he was described by one critic as the first American artist to successfully incorporate impressionist technique into his work. Around that time, Weir began to focus on landscape painting, inspired both by the natural beauty of his Connecticut farmland and by nearby industrial scenery. In 1897 he was a founding member of the impressionist artists’ group known as Ten American Painters, with which he exhibited for the next two decades.
By 1900 Weir was well established as one of his generation’s most respected artists. His work won numerous awards, and he was elected to the presidency of the National Academy in 1915. Five years after his death, he was honored with a retrospective exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he had served as a trustee. Weir Farm, the artist’s rural residence, is now open to the public as a National Park Service property.
Within a few years, Weir’s attitude toward impressionism shifted, possibly under the influence of the fresh aesthetic of Japanese prints, which he greatly admired. By the early 1880s, he was visiting Paris not only to show his work in the prestigious Salon exhibitions but to acquire paintings for a New York collector by French painter Edouard Manet (1832–1883), whose work influenced his own. In New York, Weir painted commissioned portraits and stil lifes and taught art to support himself. He exhibited at the National Academy of Design while also becoming active in the independent Society of American Artists. Following his marriage in 1883, Weir divided his time between New York, the farm he purchased in Branchville, Connecticut, and his wife’s family home in Windham, Connecticut. These rural locales provided the setting in which Weir, along with such friends and colleagues as John Henry Twachtman and Theodore Robinson, helped develop a distinctly American approach to impressionist landscape painting.
In the late 1880s, Weir took up the print medium of etching and also worked in pastel, a dense, dry, colored chalk. On the occasion of his first important solo exhibition, in 1891, he was described by one critic as the first American artist to successfully incorporate impressionist technique into his work. Around that time, Weir began to focus on landscape painting, inspired both by the natural beauty of his Connecticut farmland and by nearby industrial scenery. In 1897 he was a founding member of the impressionist artists’ group known as Ten American Painters, with which he exhibited for the next two decades.
By 1900 Weir was well established as one of his generation’s most respected artists. His work won numerous awards, and he was elected to the presidency of the National Academy in 1915. Five years after his death, he was honored with a retrospective exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, where he had served as a trustee. Weir Farm, the artist’s rural residence, is now open to the public as a National Park Service property.