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Biography of Julian Alden WeirAmerican artistborn 1852 - died 1919 Student of: Jean Léon Gérôme (1824-1904). Son of: Robert Walter Weir (1803-1889) |
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Julian Alden Weir, a leading
American impressionist, was born in West
Point, New York. Julian Alden Weir was the son of Robert
Weir, a drawing instructor at the U.S.
Military Academy at West Point, and
half-brother of John Weir, first director of
the art program at Yale University. Julian
Alden Weir took
art classes at the National Academy of
Design before traveling to Paris in 1873 to
study under the noted French Academician
Jean Léon Gérôme
and later at the École des Beaux-Arts. |
However, increasingly painting by Weir
reflected this new style, beginning when
Julian Alden Weir and
Bastien-Lepage painted outdoors
together, concerning themselves with
atmospheric light and everyday subject
matter such as peasants working in the
fields. Another influence was friendship
with
James MacNeil Whistler, known for his
loosening of style and dark tonalities. In the 1880s Weir focused on still-life painting along with landscape, especially florals in a rather dark palette, which at the time of their creation were counter to his increasing interest in Impressionism. Julian Alden Weir also was a portrait painter and in 1883, married one of his models, Anna Baker. |
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After 1883, Julian Alden Weir had a New York studio at 51
West Tenth Street and supported himself and
wife with portrait painting and teaching.
Julian Alden Weir became associated with the first generation
of American Impressionists that included
Childe Hassam and John Twachtman. Julian
Alden Weir and
Twachtman traveled in Holland together and
also held joint exhibitions including in
1888 at the Society of artists in Pastel
and the next year at the Fifth Avenue Art
Galleries. Weir's entries were still life,
figure, and scenes from rural Connecticut,
with obvious Barbizon School influence of
Lepage and realistic tendencies of
Gustave,
but nothing that one could describe as
Impressionism. He was part of the founding of the Society of American Artists, which was a rebellion of European-trained American artists against the constraints of those upholding the standards of the National Academy. Julian Alden Weir was a leading figure in the Society and became increasingly influential in promoting leading-edge French paintings including the collection in America of work by his friend Bastien-Lepage and also of Gustave Courbet and Edouard Manet. However, by 1893, exhibited paintings by Julian Alden Weir were being labelled Impressionistic in what was described by one critic as their "rude style of handling" (Gerdts 106) including their casual attention to detail and atmospheric qualities. Between 1893 and 1897, Julian Alden Weir completed factory landscape paintings that were said to reflect his full commitment to Impressionism. His summer home from 1883 was in Windham, Connecticut, and his factory paintings depicted the thread factories of nearby Willimantic, Connecticut. These realistic, industrial subjects were a departure from pervasive serene, often idealized American landscape painting. Active in art circles, Weir was an organizer of the 1913 Armory Show in New York, which introduced avant-garde European art to the American public, and Julian Alden Weir was also President of the National Academy of Design from 1915 to 1917. |
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Five years
after his death in 1919, a memorial
exhibition of his painting was held at the
Metropolitan Museum in New York. Source: William Gerdts, "American Impressionism" Matthew Baigell, "Dictionary of American Art" Michael Zellman, "300 Years of American Art" |
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