Julian Alden Weir
Julian Alden Weir
American, 1852 – 1919
Into the Tile Club“ came a young enthusiast, fresh from the ateliers of Paris, a painter for whom all the others predicted a glorious future, one whose remarkable personal beauty was the envy of all— J. Alden Weir”( Millet, 87). This handsome artist was born in West Point, New York, the son of Robert Walter Weir, a drawing instructor at the Military Academy. After receiving some training from his father, Julian attended the National Academy of Design. Like many artists of the period, he also studied in France. In 1873, with the financial support of his godmother, Weir enrolled at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and worked under Jean-Léon Gérôme. While in Europe, Weir also met the artists Jules Bastien-Lepage and James McNeill Whistler, both of whom had an impact on his style.
In 1877, Weir returned to New York. Here, he became a founding member of the Society of American Artists and the Tile Club, and he worked as a buying agent for Erwin Davis and Henry Marquand, making frequent trips to Europe. He also was an instructor at the Cooper Union, the Art Students League, and taught private lessons. Anna Dwight Baker, one of his students, was smitten by Julian, and the two married in 1883. After their honeymoon in Europe, they made a sizeble Connecticut farm their new home— fellow artists John Henry Twachtman, Theodore Robinson, and Childe Hassam were frequent visitors. The beauty of the property inspired Weir to paint a number of pleinair landscapes, and in the following decades he became known for his impressionist works, a style he shunned while at the academy. In 1892, Anna passed away due to complications from childbirth; Weir married her sister, Ella, a year later. During these years, Weir painted a mural for the World’ s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. Weir also helped form the Ten American Painters, and in 1915, he was elected president of the National Academy of Design.
J. Alden Weir, photograph, Weir Farm National Historic Site, National Park Service.
REFERENCES: Bolger, Doreen. J. Alden Weir: An American Impressionist.
Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1983. Cummings, Hildegard, Helen K. Fusscas, and Susan G. Larkin. J. Alden Weir: A Place of His Own. Storrs: William Benton Museum of Art, University of Connecticut, 1991.
Dearinger, David Bernard, ed. Paintings and Sculpture in the Collection of the National Academy of Design. Volume 1, 1826 – 1925. New York: Hudson Hills Press, 2004. Mather Jr., Frank Jewett. Estimates in Art. Series II. Sixteen Essays on American Painters of the Nineteenth Century. Freeport, NY: Books for Libraries Press, 1970.
Millet, J. B.“ The Tile Club.” In Julian Alden Weir: An Appreciation of His Life and Works, 75 – 87. New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1922.
Wardle, Marian, ed. The Weir Family, 1820-1920: Expanding the Traditions of American Art. Provo, UT: Brigham Young University Museum of Art, 2012.
122 THE TILE CLUB: Camaraderie and American Plein-Air Painting