Robert W. Weir

Robert Weir, the father of the painters Julian Alden and John Ferguson Weir (whose work is represented in the Museum's permanent collection), worked as a landscape, portrait, religious, and genre painter as well as an illustrator. He first studied with Robert Cook, an English heraldic artist, in New York and later befriended painter John Wesley Jarvis. From 1824-27, Weir traveled to Italy and studied with the academic painter Pietro Benvenuti in Florence. He stayed primarily in Rome where he shared a room with his friend Horatio Greenough, a renowned sculptor. Upon his return to America, he was elected to the National Academy of Design, and he became an instructor of drawing at West Point Military Academy, New York and succeeded Charles R. Leslie in 1846. He held this position for another 42 years. Among his most famous pupils were Whistler, his two sons, Julian and John, Union Generals Ulysses S. Grant and W.T. Sherman, Confederate General Robert E. Lee and Confederate President Jefferson Davis. Weir is most renowned for his large history painting of the mid-1830s, "The Embarkation of the Pilgrims (from Delft Haven, Holland)", which is in the Rotunda of the Capitol in Washington, D.C.

Inspired by European artistic traditions from the Renaissance, Baroque, and Neo-Classical periods, Weir was an academic painter. Like genre painter John Quidor (whose work is also represented in the Museum's collection), Weir often sought inspiration from the novels of James Fennimore Cooper and Washington Irving.

EXTENDED BIO

Robert Walter Weir (June 18, 1803 – May 1, 1889) was an American artist, best known as an educator and as a historical painter. He is considered an artist of the Hudson River school.[1] Weir was elected to the National Academy of Design in 1829, and an instructor at the United States Military Academy. Among his better-known works are The Embarkation of the Pilgrims (in the rotunda of the United States Capitol at Washington, D.C.) and Landing of Hendrik Hudson. Robert Weir was born on June 18, 1803, in New Rochelle, New York to Robert and Mary Katherine (Brinkley) Weir. Weir never graduated from college and at age 18, in 1821, left a job as a mercantile clerk to pursue painting. He studied art in New York City from 1822–24, teaching himself drawing and painting, before departing in 1824 to study in Italy.[2] He remained in Florence from 1824–25, and in Rome from 1825–27, during which time he studied the works of Michelangelo, Raphael, and other Italian masters of the Renaissance. Weir returned to New York in 1827 to accompany a sick friend. He remained in New York until 1834 and became an integral part of its artist. He was then appointed as Teacher of Drawing, later Professor of Drawing, at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.[3]

Replacing the late Thomas Grimbrede, Weir was the fifth artist to hold the position of art instructor at the academy.[4] In this post for forty-two years (1834–1876), he instructed many of the future commanders of the American Civil War. (He developed a special relationship with Ulysses S. Grant).[3] Notably, James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Seth Eastman were among his students. He died in New York City on May 1, 1889.[4] Weir and his wife had 16 children.[5] One son, John Ferguson Weir (born 1841) was a painter and sculptor, and became a Member of the National Academy of Design in 1866, and was made director of the Yale University Art School in 1868. Another son, Julian Alden Weir (born 1852), studied under his father, and under J.-L. Gérôme, and became a distinguished portrait, figure and landscape painter. He was one of the founders of the Society of American Artists in 1877, and became a member of the National Academy of Design (1886) and of the Ten American Painters, New York.[6] Weir was considered part of the Hudson River school of American art. One of his best known paintings is the The Embarkation of the Pilgrims, which hangs in the United States Capitol rotunda. He was commissioned by the United States Congress in 1837 and the painting was placed in the rotunda in 1844.[7] His canvases deal principally with historical subjects. He also painted a watercolor entitled Last Communion of Henry Clay, and several portraits.

REFERENCES

"Robert W". Math.usma.edu. 2000-11-28. Retrieved 2012-05-20.

Jump up ^ Kent Ahrens,"The Portraits of Robert Weir," American Art Journal, Vol. 6, No. 1, p. 4

^ Jump up to: a b Ahrens, p. 4.

^ Jump up to: a b "USMA site on Weir". Math.usma.edu. 2000-11-28. Retrieved 2012-05-20.

Jump up ^ Jones, Jennifer (Spring 2012). "Portraits of Influence:Robert Walter Weir (1803-89)". BYU Magazine: 31.

Jump up ^ Public Domain This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Weir, Robert Walter". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press

Jump up ^ "Architect of the Capitol page on Embarkation of the Pilgrims". Aoc.gov. Retrieved 2012-05-20.

Jump up ^ "Robert Weir - Artist, Fine Art, Auction Records, Prices, Biography for Robert Walter Weir". Askart.com. 2008-12-03. Retrieved 2012-05-25.

Jump up ^ "East Baltimore Documentary Survey Project by Joan Clark Netherwood / American Art". Americanart.si.edu. Retrieved 2012-05-25.

Jump up ^ Reed, Henry Hope. The United States Capital: Its Architecture and Decoration. New York: W.W. Norton & Company. p. 203. ISBN 0-393-03831-9.

Jump up ^ Untitled, Hawk-Eye (Burlington, Iowa), 13 June 1844