Weir, Julian Alden [key], 1852–1919, b. West Point, N.Y., American painter. He studied with his father Robert Walter Weir, a landscape painter of the Hudson River school, at the National Academy; and with Gérôme in Paris. He was one of the earliest American impressionist painters. Subtle gradations of light and tone characterize his work. He was a founder of the Society of American Artists (1877), a member of the National Academy (1886), and its president (1915–17). When the Ten American Artists formed a separate group (1898), he joined them. His works include Idle Hours, The Green Bodice, and The Red Bridge (all: Metropolitan Mus.); a portrait and Autumn (Corcoran Gall.); and Midday Rest in New England (Pa. Acad. of the Fine Arts). Weir's brother, John Ferguson Weir, 1841–1926, was a painter, sculptor and author, noted for small genre scenes and for his biography of John Trumbull.
See J. A. Weir's letters with a biography by his daughter, Dorothy Weir Young (ed. by L. Chisolm, 1960).
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