Julian Alden Weir was born on August 30, 1852 in West Point, New York, United States, the fourteenth of sixteen children to Robert Walter Weir, a professor of drawing at West Point Military Academy, and his second wife, Susan Martha Bayard Weir. His older brother, John Ferguson Weir, was a well-known painter and was appointed the first director of the Yale School of Fine Arts in 1869.
At seventeen, Julian enrolled in art classes at the National Academy of Design. From 1873 to 1877, he studied in Europe, mainly in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Here Julian not only studied techniques, but also discovered the rich art history Europe had to offer.
Weir traveled extensively, enraptured by visits to rural France, Spain, Holland, England and seeing the artwork and scenery they presented. Back in Paris, worn out from his travels, Weir spent his Saturday afternoons at the Louvre museum for "recuperation." Throughout, Weir continued his own art practicing with Jean-Léon Gérôme, who was himself considered a master. Gérôme's teaching was effective, and Weir won the top award in Gerome's studio. Weir also exhibited at the Paris Salon. Yet even as Weir learned the strict rules of art in the academic style, he was already formulating his own ideas, which would foreshadow his later switch to Impressionism.
When Weir left Paris in 1877, he pondered a comment from a Frenchmen he had met: "He thought America was going to be a great country for art. I hope certainly this is true." With this in mind, he returned to New York and established himself as a portrait and still life painter, as well an art teacher at the Art Students League. He helped to found the Society of American Artists, a group formed to exhibit their own works separate from the rigid standards and exclusive environment of the Academy. Weir also banded with his aspiring peers through The Tile Club. Formed in 1877, this group of up and coming artists included William Merritt Chase and Winslow Homer, The Tile Club met weekly - supposedly to paint tiles.
While in New York, Weir also took on the role of art buyer and collector. He made additional trips to Europe in 1878 and again in 1880 - 1881. These trips were made both to study and also to buy art for himself and New York art collectors such as Erwin Davis. In January 1882, one of Weir's drawing students brought her friend to a lesson. The new student was Anna Dwight Baker from Windham, Connecticut. Within three weeks, Julian and Anna had fallen in love and were engaged.
Erwin Davis wanted a painting that Julian acquired in Europe so much that he offered Weir a deal. Davis would trade a 153-acre farm in Branchville, Connecticut for the painting - plus $10.00. Weir agreed to the deal with Davis and on July 19, 1882, for a painting and ten dollars, he received the 153-acre Branchville farm. Weir and Anna were married the next year on April 24, 1883. They would visit the Branchville property before and after their honeymoon in Europe.
The couple's honeymoon took them to Europe for six months, during which Weir's brother, John, was in charge at the Branchville farm. Weir, abroad in Venice, found himself yearning for his rural retreat. They returned to the United States in September 1883, and Weir made Branchville his primary residence for the next thirty-six years. During the 1880s and early 1890s, Weir matured as an artist. He experimented with etching and developed a new approach to landscape painting influenced in part by Japanese art and from French Impressionism. He moved away from his traditional background and focused on his personal response to nature. Weir exhibited his new style of painting with Society of Painters in Pastels, the New York Etching Club, and the Universal Exposition in Paris, where he won a silver medal.
Weir's reputation as a landscape painter and leader of the American Impressionists grew through the 1890s. During the winter of 1897 - 1898, Weir joined his friends Childe Hassam, John Twachtman, and seven other like-minded artists in forming a new artists' group known as the "Ten American Painters", or "The Ten." This group provided an alternative to the staid exhibitions of the National Academy of Design. Back at Branchville, Weir continued to use the landscape for inspiration and made improvements to the farm. He constructed a pond for fishing in 1896 with money he had won from a first-prize painting he entered in an art show. In 1907, he acquired a neighboring farm, bringing his land total to 238 acres. He also expanded the original farmhouse thrice. This provided Weir with a space to accommodate friends and guests at his beloved retreat.
Weir, and many of his artist friends, exhibited in Armory Show of 1913 - an international show of over three hundred artists that boasted the largest attendance of an art exhibition in New York. Over 100,000 people attend and saw the many works exhibited. Nonetheless, this show was just one event in the early 1900s that marked Weir's establishment as a respected artist. Critical acclaim ultimately brought Weir to the forefront of the American art establishment. In 1915, he was elected President of the National Academy of Design and granted membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Association of American Painters and Sculptors, and the Board of Directors at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Weir was appointed to the National Commission on Fine Arts as "Painter Member" in 1916. Weir died on December 8, 1919 due to heart disease.
Autumn Rain
A French Homestead
Windham Village
Drypoint portrait of American painter Theodore Robinson
Landscape with Steeple, Wyndham
A Follower of Grolier
Flowers in a Delft Jug
The Birches
At the Piano
Still Life with Flowers
Face Reflected in a Mirror
Overhanging Trees
Girl Knitting
The Statue of Liberty
Nassau, Bahamas
Loading Ice
The Wharves, Nassau
The Laundry, Branchville
The Road to No Where
Lengthening Shadows
Autumn Days
Summer Afternoon, Shinnecock Landscape
The Veranda
Mother and Child
After the Ride aka Visiting Neighbors
Girl Standing by a Gate
The Bridge Nocturne aka Nocturne Queensboro Bridge
Noonday Rest in New England
Silver Chalice with Roses
Houses in Pasture
Ideal Head
Connecticut Scene
Little Lizie Lynch
Fireside Dreams
Summer
The Ice Cutters
The Inlet
Idle Hours
Willimantic Thread Factory
Upland Pasture
Vase and Roses
The Lace Maker
The Letter
Winter Landscape with Stream
Still Life
At the Water Trough
The Farmer's Lawn
Cora
The red bridge
Girl in Black
On the Shore
The Factory Village
Midsummer Landscape
Portrait of Cara
The Blue Gown
The Grey Trellis
Union Square
Green Hills and Farmland
Mother and Child
The River Bend
Silver Chalice, Japanese Bronze and Red Tapir
In the Livingroom
Branchville, Connecticut
Landscape with Seated Figure
The Building of the Dam
The Black Hat
The Flower Seller
Roses in a Silver Bowl on a Mahogany Table
Ravine near Branchville
Landscape with Stone Wall, Windham
Midday
He explored the techniques of Japanese prints, carefully assessing the aesthetic function of flat patterning, cropping asymmetry, oblique angles, muted tonalities, and high horizons. As Weir slowly moved toward impressionism, he painted attractive if somewhat idealized pictures of the factories at Willimantic.
Julian and Anna Dwight Baker had fallen in love and were engaged in 1882. They were married on April 24, 1883. Weir became a father to three daughters, Caroline, Dorothy and Cora. In 1892 Anna suddenly died from complications from childbirth. She died one week after giving birth to their youngest daughter, Cora. Anna's sister, Ella, was available to take charge of the baby and her two older sisters while Julian was away. Letters between Julian and his sister-in-law reveal his gradual realization that Ella could fill the void in his life. They were married in Boston in October 1893.
