Julian Alden Weir

Julian Alden Weir, late 19th century.

Julian Alden Weir (born August 30, 1852 in West Point , New York - † December 8, 1919 ), often only known as J. Alden Weir , was an American impressionist painter .

life and work

John Alden Weir was the son of the painter Robert Walter Weir , who was also a professor at the military academy. His brother John Ferguson Weir was also a painter and directed the Yale University School of Fine Arts from 1869 to 1913 . Both brothers received his first artistic training from their father, Julien Alden Weir then went to the National Academy of Design in New York City , where he studied painting.

From 1873 to 1877 he traveled to Europe to study further in Paris. Here he was trained mainly by Jean-Léon Gérôme . In 1875 Weir was able to exhibit his first painting, A Britanny Interior, in the Paris Salon , the choice of which was inspired by his friend Jules Bastien-Lepage . Weir rejected both the art of the French Impressionists and the painting of James McNeill Whistler at the time, in which he criticized too little form and drawing. He met Whistler personally in London in 1877 .

In the fall of 1877, Weir returned to the United States and settled in New York City, although he also traveled regularly to Europe in the later years. In the same year he was one of the founders of the Society of American Artists , of which he became president in 1882. In 1878 he began training other artists, first at the Cooper Union , and later at the Art Students League . His own painting at that time concentrated on portrait and genre painting . His flower still lifes and the so-called bric-a-bracs , which were compared with those of John Le Farge , were particularly popular . Starting in 1883, Weir commuted between his New York townhouse and his farm in Branchville , Connecticut . Inspired by the pictures of Édouard Manet and an exhibition of French impressionists in New York in 1886, he now turned to this art style as well, producing his first impressionist landscape paintings with short brushstrokes. In Branchville in particular, many of these landscapes were created and in 1887 Weir's friend John Henry Twachtman also settled there. From 1887, Weir also began to concentrate more on printmaking and drypoint etching .

Julian Alden Weir: The Red Bridge , 1895

In 1888, the painting was Idle Hours from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York bought and at the Paris World's Fair Exposition Universelle de Paris 1889, Weir one silver medal. In the following years he further developed his personal style and integrated new elements such as the motifs of Japanese prints into his painting. In 1895 he created The Red Bridge, one of his most famous landscape paintings, on which a freshly painted iron bridge is depicted in a peaceful landscape. With this and other pictures, Weir combines the beauty of nature and landscape with the element of modern industry. In 1893 he completed the work on the mural commissioned by him for the World Columbian Exposition in Chicago .

In 1892 his first wife died and Weir remarried in 1893. At that time he was known as an art connoisseur and advised various collectors on the compilation of their collections. He attached particular importance to the modern artists of France and made Manet and Gustave Courbet known in the USA in particular . In 1898 he co-founded the artist group Ten American Painters with Childe Hassam and Twachtman while he was disappointed with the very conservative development of the Society of American Artists . Weir also intensified his contacts with the Association of American Painters and Sculptors and was briefly installed there as President. In 1904, Weir received two awards for his paintings at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis, and in 1911 his works were shown in a large-scale retrospective that was shown in several cities on the American East Coast and the Midwest. In 1913, with his support, the Armory Show took place in New York, where he himself exhibited 25 paintings. He himself continued to be progressive, but was unable to actively support the radical changes in art towards modernity and remained romantically impressionistic until the end of his life.

In 1915, Weir was elected president of the National Academy of Design appointed in New York when the Member ( NA ) he had been elected already 1886th For health reasons, Weir was only able to exercise this function until 1917, when he died two years later. In 1924 he was recognized posthumously by a commemorative exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art .

Individual evidence

1. ^ Nationalacademy.org: Past Academicians "W" / Weir, Julian Alden NA 1886; PNAD 1915-17 ( Memento of the original dated August 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on June 20, 2015)  

gallery

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  Idle Hours , 1888

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  Girl Standing by a Gate , 1896

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  The Gray Trellis , 1891

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  The porch , 1900

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  The Birches , 1903

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  The Blue Gown , around 1907

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  On the Shore , around 1909

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  Nocturne, Queensboro Bridge , 1910

literature

• American impressionism . Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibition Service, Washington DC 1982 (catalog of the exhibition of the same name of the State Museums in Berlin ).
• William H. Gerdts : American Impressionism. Masterpieces from public and private collections in the United States of America . Eidolon, Einsiedeln 1990 (catalog of the exhibition of the same name, July 22 to October 28, 1990, Villa Favorita, Thyssen-Bornemisza Foundation, Lugano-Castagnola).
• Stephan Koja (Hrsg.): America - The new world in pictures of the 19th century. Prestel Verlag, Munich 1999; Page 195. ISBN 3-7913-2051-3 .
• Doreen Bolger Burke: J. Alden Weir. An American Impressionist. University Press, Delaware 1983, ISBN 0-87413-220-7 .

Web links

Commons : Julian Alden Weir  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Julian Alden Weir at artcyclopedia.com (engl.)
• Biography and selection of works at The Phillips Collection, Washington (engl.)
• Julian Alden Weir in Google Arts & Culture