Irene Weir
BornJanuary 15, 1862 (1862-01-15)
St. Louis, Missouri
DiedMarch 22, 1944 (1944-03-23) (aged 82)
Yorktown Heights, New York
Alma materYale School of Art
Occupation(s)Artist, art educator

Irene Weir (January 15, 1862–March 22, 1944), was an American artist and art educator.

Biography

Irene Weir was born to Walter and Annie Field Weir (née Andrews) in St. Louis, Missouri on January 15, 1862.[1][2] Weir came from a long line of artists and educators. Her grandfather Robert Walter Weir was an artist and an instructor at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.[2] Her uncles John Ferguson Weir was an artist and director of the School of Fine Arts at Yale and Julian Alden Weir, a leading figure in New York's art world.[3]

Chromolithograph by Weir

Weir attended Yale from 1881 to 1882 and was awarded a degree in fine arts in 1906 for cumulative artistic achievement rather than coursework.[2][4] She also studied in France, Spain, Holland, United Kingdom and Italy on two separate trips. On returning to the US Weir went on to teach art in New Haven, Connecticut before moving to teach in Brookline, Massachusetts, public school system. There she went on to become the director of art instruction. Weir also served as director of the Slater Museum School of Art in Norwich, Connecticut.[2][3][4][5]

In 1911, Weir became the director at the Ethical Teaching School and taught pottery, bookbinding, illustration, etching, illustration, sculpture, and painting.[6][7] In 1917, she founded the School of Design and Liberal Arts and served as director until 1929.[2] As an educator, she championed the idea that art should be for everyone and not just the elite and was enmeshed in everyday life.[8]

In 1923, she attended the École des Beaux Arts Américaine in Fontainebleau, France, and graduated in 1927.[2]

Weir's own works hang at Washington Cathedral, a prison in New York City, and Memorial hospital in New York as well as having been held in exhibitions from New York to London and Washington D.C.[1][2][9][10]

Weir was both an educator and active participant of the art organizations such as the National Society of Etchers, Independent Artists of America, the London Lyceum Club, and the Founders Group of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas. She was also director of the Art Alliance of America. She died from cardiovascular disease in 1944 in Yorktown Heights, New York.[1][2][5]

Bibliography

  • The Greek Painters' Art (1905)[11][12]
  • Outlines of Courses in Design, Representation and Color for High School Classes (1910), with Elizabeth Stone
  • Robert W. Weir, Artist (1947)[13]

Sources

  1. 1 2 3 James, Edward T.; Boyer, Paul S.; College, Radcliffe (1971). Notable American Women, 1607–1950: A Biographical Dictionary. Harvard University Press. ISBN 978-0-674-62734-5.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Irene Weir, Artist, Founder of School; Ex-Head of School of Design and Liberal Arts Dies, 82". The New York Times. 23 March 1944. p. 19.
  3. 1 2 Heller, Jules; Heller, Nancy G. (19 December 2013). North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: A Biographical Dictionary. Routledge. ISBN 978-1-135-63889-4.
  4. 1 2 Fahlman, Betsy (1991). "Women Art Students at Yale, 1869–1913: Never True Sons of the University". Woman's Art Journal. 12 (1): 15–23. doi:10.2307/1358185. ISSN 0270-7993. JSTOR 1358185.
  5. 1 2 "An Artists' Retreat : J. Alden Weir's Farm in Connecticut" (PDF). National Park Service. Weir Farm National Historic Site.
  6. ↑ Reymond, Rhonda L. (2010). "Looking in: Albert A. Smith's Use of "Repoussoir" in Cover Illustrations for the "Crisis" and "Opportunity"". American Periodicals. 20 (2): 216–240. ISSN 1054-7479. JSTOR 23025189.
  7. ↑ "The Rome Exposition (Concluded)". American Art News. 10 (2): 1–8 (2). October 21, 1911. ISSN 1944-0227. JSTOR 25590764.
  8. ↑ Weir, Irene (1915). "A New Kind of Art School". Art and Progress. 6 (7): 217–219. ISSN 2151-2531. JSTOR 20561448.
  9. ↑ "Opera Stories (Primary Title) – (90.106)". Virginia Museum of Fine Arts.
  10. ↑ "Overview and Highlights". artgallery.yale.edu. Yale University Art Gallery.
  11. ↑ "The Greeks as Painters. The Greek Painters' Art. By Irene Weir. 12mo. Illustrated. Pp. 361. Cloth. Decorated. Gilt top, Boston and New York: Ginn & Co". The New York Times (Review). April 29, 1905. p. 20. Retrieved 2021-05-21.
  12. ↑ Weir, Irene (1905). The Greek Painters' Art. Cambridge, Massachusetts: Ginn.
  13. ↑ Weir, Irene (1947). Robert W. Weir, Artist. House of Field-Doubleday.
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