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for JULIAN ALDEN WEIR
JULIAN ALDEN WEIR
1852 - 1919
Julian Alden Weir came from a family of painters. His father, Robert Walker Weir, taught drawing at the United States Military Academy at West Point, and his brother, John Ferguson Weir, was the first director of Yale University's School of Fine Arts. He was born in West Point in 1852. He studied under his father, then at the National Academy of Design, and in Paris with Jean-Leon Gerome in 1873. Weir felt that French impressionism lacked drawing and form. However, he exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1875. During his European studies, he met and was influenced by James A. M. Whistler. He returned to New York City in 1883, supporting himself by painting portraits and teaching. He became a founding member of the Society of American Artists.
During the 1890's, Weir married Anna Baker, made many trips to Europe, and became one of the first Americans to introduce Edourd Manet's paintings to the United States. As a recognized authority in the modern art world, Weir was a major advisor to American collectors, encouraging them to buy works by Manet and Gustave Courbet.
Although his figure and portrait paintings were dark and dramatic, impressionism was beginning to influence his work. He turned to landscape painting, where he adopted the broken brushwork and heightened color of the impressionist style. His etchings at this time ranged from portraits of family members to landscapes with fishermen's cottages.
With his friends John Twachtman, Childe Hassam and Theodore Robinson, Weir helped pioneer the impressionist movement in America. He was a major figure in the Ten American Painters, an American impressionist group formed in 1898. One of Weir's best-known impressionist paintings is "The Red Bridge" (1895), which shows a freshly painted vermilion iron bridge set against a green landscape.
As president of the Association of American Painters and Sculptors, organized in 1911, he was involved in planning the controversial New York City Armory Show of 1913. Always receptive to new movements in art, Weir is recognized as a strong progressive force in American art. He died in 1919. Five years later, the Metropolitan Museum of Art honored him with a memorial exhibition.
From: Zellman, Micheal David. 300 YEARS OF AMERICAN ART, Secaucus, New Jersey: Wellfleet Press, 1987: 461.
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