Weir Farm National Historic Site
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Weir Farm National Historic Site pays
tribute not to a single artist, but to an entire style that developed there.
Near the turn of the century, Julian Alden Weir invited fellow artists to his
farm near Branchville, Connecticut.
The rocky, uneven land of the New England
countryside, a bane to farmers, proved to be an inspiration to artists. The
artists who visited the farm, including Albert Pinkham Ryder, John Twachtman,
and Childe Hassam, were struggling to find their artistic identity under the
growing influence of the French Impressionists. When Weir first saw the works
of Monet and Renoir in 1876, while he was studying at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts
in Paris, he
described the exhibition as “worse than the Chamber of Horrors.”
 ©National Park Service Weir Farm National Historic Site marks the birthplace of the American Impressionism Movement. |
Fifteen years later, however, the artists at Weir Farm had devised their own
version of French Impressionist techniques, and the American Impressionist
Movement was born. Unlike the earlier Hudson River
painters who found their creative drive in spectacular examples of nature, the
American Impressionists preferred more intimate views, such as the play of
light on a stretch of land or a simple meadow. The peaceful, pastoral settings
in Weir’s paintings, such as “The Laundry,” “Building a
Dam,” and “The Border of the Farm,” still influence the way many
Americans think of the New England landscape.
The
friendship between the American Impressionists, nurtured at Weir Farm, was
important to the development of the movement. Many of the artists came up on
the weekends from New York,
and they painted each other’s families, as well as the barns, ponds, houses,
and gardens of the farm. A great deal of the original Weir Farm remains,
including the studios, barns, and houses. In addition, the site, authorized in
1990, includes 60 of the 62 acres of Weir Farm, helping to preserve the open
space that inspired a movement of American art.
J. Alden Weir’s artistic legend has carried on at Weir Farm through the work of
living artists. In 1931, Weir’s daughter Dorothy married the sculptor Mahonri
Young, a grandson of Brigham Young. Already recognized for his small studies in
bronze of the common working man, Young came to live at the farm and continued
his work. He built a studio there to accommodate his monumental public work.
Dorothy Weir Young, who trained at her father’s side, was also an accomplished
artist in both oils and watercolor. Since Mahonri Young’s death in 1957, the
cultivation of art continues at Weir Farm with the work of Sperry and Doris
Andrews and visiting artists.
Weir Farm National Historic Site Information
Address: 735
Nod Hill Rd.,
Wilton, CT
Telephone: 203/834-1896
Hours
of Operation:
Call for information about programs and scheduled tours
Admission:
Free
Learn more about these other national historic sites:
Saint-
Gaudens National Historic Site
To learn more about national
monuments, memorials, and historic sites, and other travel destinations in North America, visit:
National Monuments:
Learn more about America’s
national monuments.
Eric Peterson is a Denver-based author who has contributed to numerous guidebooks about the Western United States.
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Weir Farm National Historic Site
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