Robert Walter Weir (June 18, 1803 - May 1, 1889) was an American artist, best known as an educator, and as an historical painter. He was considered an artist of the Hudson River school,[1] 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.); Landing of Hendrik Hudson; Evening of the Crucifixion; Columbus before the Council of Salamanca; Our Lord on the Mount of Olives; Virgil and Dante crossing the Styx.
Life and career
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 unti1 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.[3] Notably, James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Seth Eastman were among his students. He died in New York City on the first of May 1889.[4]
Children
His 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.[5]
Artwork
Weir was considered part of the Hudson River school of American art. One of his best known artworks 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.[6] His canvases, dealing principally with historical subjects, also include: The Bourbons Last March; Landing of Hendrie Hudson (1842); A Compositor Setting Type (ca. 1844)[7]; Indian Captive; Taking the Veil; The Evening of the Crucifixion (1867); Virgil and Dante Crossing the Styx (1869); Christ in the Garden (1873); The Portico of the Palace of Octavia, Rome (1870); Our Lord on the Mount of Olives (1877); Indian Falls (1878); Titian in his Studio; Columbus before the Council of Salamanca (1884) and St. Nicholas (1837), which currently is part of the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum.[8] He also painted a water-color entitled: Last Communion of Henry Clay, and several portraits. He died in New York city, May 1, 1889.
List of Weir's works
· Paul Preaching at Athens
· Two portraits of Sylvanus Thayer [Pappus, p. 210].
· Embarkation of the Pilgrims at Delft Haven, Holland, July 22, 1620.
· Picnic Along the Hudson, [1], retrieved December 14, 2007
· Christ in the Garden.
· Indian Falls.
· Landing of Hendrik Hudson.
· Evening of the Crucifixion.
· Titan in his Studio.
· Columbus before the Council of Salamanca.
· Our Lord in the Mount of Olives.
· Virgil and Dante crossing the Styx
· The Bourbons Last March.
· Saint Nicholas.
· Landing of Hendrie Hudson.
· "A Compositor Setting Type."
· Indian Captive.
· Taking the Veil.
· The Evening of the Crucifixion.
· Portrait of Jared Mansfield.
· Portrait of General Winfield Scott.
· Portrait of Dennis Hart Mahan.
· Portrait of Robert E. Lee. One of only two portraits painted before the Civil War.
· Seascape with Lighthouse, 1869. Exhibited at Whitney Museum, New York, 1975, in exhibition entitled "Seascape and the American Imagination"
Notes
2. ^ Kent Ahrens,"The Portraits of Robert Weir," American Art Journal, Vol. 6, No. 1, p. 4
4. ^ a b USMA site on Weir
1.
^ 
This
article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm,
Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.).
Cambridge University Press.
2. ^ Architect of the Capitol page on Embarkation of the Pilgrims
3. ^ Untitled, Hawk-Eye (Burlington, Iowa), 13 June 1844
4. ^ Reed, Henry Hope. The United States Capital: Its Architecture and Decoration. W.W. Norton & Company. p. 203. ISBN 0393038319.
External links
§ NY Times article:[2] retrieved December 14, 2007
§ Askart Bio information:[3], retrieved December 14, 2007
