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About J. Alden Weir
J. Alden Weir (1852-1919), the son of a drawing teacher at the U.S. Military Academy, studied at the National Academy of Design in New York, and then under Jean-Léon Gérôme in Paris. Returning to New York in 1877, he joined William Merritt Chase as a member of the newly formed Society of American Artists and began teaching. Weir’s conversion to impressionism was gradual. By 1897, Weir was regarded as one of the leading American Impressionists and along with Childe Hassam and Chase, founded the important impressionist group called the Ten American Painters. At one time an outspoken radical, by the time he was elected president of the National Academy of Design in 1915, Weir was considered to be an "old master" American impressionist.
A typically distant view of Willimantic shows one of the artist’s favorite subjects but it also reveals his unmistakable reticence in exploiting broken color. Never one to employ a bright, colorful palette, Weir nonetheless achieved a softly vibrating effect from small strokes of pale greens, blues, and warm tones, all laid on with the gentle touch of his brushes. Always a truly effective master of composition, Weir offers in this work an opportunity for the viewer to make his way down the sloping road toward Willimantic. This quiet setting provides one easy access, even a gentle trip to the nearby industrial town. Those who labored day in and day out in the hot factories are not shown, almost as if they did not exist, and in this regard, Weir demonstrated his alignment with the impressionists, who enjoyed depicting the more cheerful aspects of life. |
Paintings by J. Alden Weir
| View of Willimantic, CT |
| oil on canvas: 20 x 24 inches |
| unsigned |
| date: circa 1893 - 1903 |
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| Stilllife with Cooper Pot |
| oil on canvas: 30 x 25 inches |
| signed: lower left |
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