1878
Oil on wood, 10 1/4 x 7 7/8”
Unsigned

Portrait of Robert Weir

J. Alden Weir (1852-1919)

Weir painted this study of his artist father, Robert Walter Weir (1803-1889), just after returning from study in France. The large version was shown at the National Academy of Design in 1878, but the study was also on view that year at the new Society of American Artists, which actually wanted works without traditional “finish.” Here the sitter looks directly at us, not into distance as in the large version. A decade later Weir brought a similar immediacy to the Impressionist landscapes he painted in Connecticut.