Antiquarian Art Co.
All Items : Fine Art : Paintings : Oil : Europe : British : Pre 1837 VR item #1449151 (stock #897)
A beautiful pair of original 19th century antique oil paintings in the manner of George Henry Harlow renowned British portrait painter, 1787-1819]. Both Oil on canvas framed in later vintage gold frames. Both paintings have been professionally restored relined cleaned and re varnished. DIMENSIONS 8.5ʺW × 1.5ʺD × 10.5ʺH
All Items : Fine Art : Paintings : Watercolor : Pre 1900 item #1413612 (stock #923)
Beautiful antique original Italian watercolor landscape painting of a waterfall and castle ruins by Vincent Blatter signed lower left. Presented matted and framed. Vincent Blatter (1843 - 1913) was active/lived in Italy. Vincent Blatter is known for painting landscapes. Overall framed size 15 x 20" excellent condition.
All Items : Fine Art : Paintings : Oil : Europe : German : Pre 1900 item #1454724 (stock #905)
Original antique European Alpine Village winter scene oil painting by Anton Doll (1826 - 1887. Oil on canvas signed lower left noted painted in Munich framed in original gold gilt frame. Anton Doll began studying law in Munich, before he turned towards painting. In 1852, he became a member of the Munich Art Association that had exhibited his paintings from very early on. Doll was influenced by Carl August Lebschée and Adolf Stademann, and his main subject was the city of Munich. Besides his historical architectural paintings with a few staffage figures, he painted wintry landscapes, clearly influenced by the great Dutch old masters. Today, works by Doll can be seen, for example, in the New Pinakothek in Munich, and in the Graphic Collection of the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart.
All Items : Fine Art : Paintings : Oil : Pre 1900 item #1466697 (stock #1022)
A beautiful antique original American tonalist landscape painting. Oil on academy panel circa 1900 unsigned presented in the original carved gilt wood frame. Measuring overall 17.5" W x 14.5" H x 1.5" the panel measures 9" x 12".
All Items : Fine Art : Paintings : Oil : N. America : American : Pre 1990 item #1469380 (stock #1027)
Original American oil painting portrait of a western horse by John Jones 2004. Oil on canvas signed lower left paint in grasaile gray tones measuring 16" x 20" presented in a quality gallery frame overall size 22" x 26". A very fine decorative painting. Artist Biography. John Jones born at Hobbs, New Mexico, in 1940. Hobbs was a fairly new oil boom town, moving into the modern world when World War II came along. My folks were raised in Oklahoma and Texas, and their folks were part of the homesteading and settling, and farming and ranching of the West. Some of my earliest memories are of making my toys out of clay. Then drawing all the time on what ever kind of paper I could get. I got hold of a roll of butcher paper when I was about 9, and remember drawing whole scenes right down the roll laid out on a cement floor. I remember making a lot of my own toys, whittling and carving them out of wood. I was sort of in different fantasy worlds, in that I made a lot of model airplanes and dressed in my western chaps and hat at the same time. And naturally I did adventure comic strips, especially when we were fighting the commies in Korea. The subject matter in my art was always varied, but the horse was always prominent. I 'dinked' with drawing and painting part time, as I discovered girls and cars, and sports and didn't know that a person could make a living doing artwork. After a stint in the Navy, I took a job with the Forest Service about 1970, and discovered Montana. I went in some Art Galleries in Kalispell, Montana, and saw that some guys were selling paintings. I said, "Heck, I can do that." So, I started doing paintings to sell, and started sculpting in wax. That started an adventure in Art, that continues today I learn from other Artists, books, TV shows, and anywhere that has something of interest. Mostly, I learn from trial and error. I think that masterpieces can be done in a closet, if that is the only space you have. But, I prefer to have a nice studio. I sometimes work on a series of paintings. Right now I am living in Lincoln, Nebraska, with my true Love, and have a nice studio. As I get a little older, I am having to narrow down my subject matter. I like the Old West Subjects best of all, but we aren't that far removed from the "Old West". So, I imagine that I will continue to do a mixture of old and new west, and anything with horses. I plan to do a series on the early longhorn cattle drives, and that may happen, if I can keep from straying too far. A few years ago, I went to Montana to do a series on the Longhorn, and wound up doing buffalo hunts and indians attacking stagecoaches. But, most everyone up there wanted me to do packer scenes, so I did a lot of packers and cowboys in slickers.
All Items : Fine Art : Paintings : Pre 1910 item #1431804 (stock #965)
Beautiful large antique original oil painting of a European village and landscape by famed American painter Colin Campbell Cooper. Oil on canvas signed and dated lower right 1907. Presented in a quality antique gold leaf frame. In good antique condition some wear commensurate of age. Biography A resident and distinguished impressionist painter of both the East and West Coasts, Colin Campbell Cooper earned an international reputation with his depictions of landscapes, florals, portraits, gardens, interiors and figures. He was especially noted for street scenes and skyscrapers of New York and Philadelphia, and his impressionist* palette was inspired by Childe Hassam, whom he met in New York beginning in the 1890s. In the later part of his life, he focused on West Coast subject matter and espoused The California Style* of watercolor painting, a bold, aggressive new oil-painting look to a medium that had traditionally been used more modestly. He was born in Philadelphia to an upper class family where the father was a surgeon, and he, the son, was encouraged by his educated family to pursue art. He was also inspired by the art he saw at the 1876 Philadelphia Exposition*. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy* of the Fine Arts with Thomas Eakins and in Paris at the Academies Julian*, Vitti, and Delecluse*. During that time, he traveled throughout Europe and painted picturesque architectural scenes, which gained him widespread recognition. Sadly many of these paintings were lost in a fire of 1896. From 1895 to 1898, he was instructor of watercolor at the Drexel Institute in Philadelphia and then moved to New York City from where he and his artist wife, Emma Lampert, traveled throughout the world in search of subject matter. On a European trip in 1912, they sailed on the Carpathia and became part of the rescue operation of the sinking Titanic, an experience that Cooper depicted in a painting, View of Steamship Carpathia passing along the edge of the ice flow after recuing survivors of the Titanic (1912). Of this event it was written by an historian that Carpathia, built 1902, "was sailing from New York City to Rijeka on the night of Sunday, 14 April 1912. Among her passengers were renowned American painters Colin Campbell Cooper and his wife Emma, journalist Lewis P. Skidmore, photographer Dr. Francis H. Blackmarr and Charles H. Marshall, whose three nieces were traveling aboard the Titanic. . . .At 4 o'clock in the morning Carpathia arrived at the scene after working her way through dangerous ice fields. Carpathia was able to save 705 people, all that survived the sinking of Titanic. Carpathia, outbound for the Mediterranean prior to the distress call, ferried the survivors to New York." (lostliners.com) The Coopers first went to California in 1915, spending the winter in Los Angeles and in 1921, settled in Santa Barbara, where he served as Dean of Painting at the Santa Barbara Community School of the Arts*. He was a member of numerous associations including the California Art Club*, Salmagundi Club*, and the National Academy of Design*. His work is in many museums including the Cincinnati Art Museum, the St. Louis Museum, and the Oakland Museum
All Items : Fine Art : Paintings : Oil : Europe : Pre 1990 item #1101197 (stock #452)
Claude Lacaze original oil painting on canvas of cubist nudes signed lower left. measuring Approximately 26 x 40 inches in excellent condition.

Biography

Lacaze was a painter who was heavily influenced by Cubism and Post-Cubism, particularly by fellow Bordeaux painters such as André L’Hote. He was born in Angoulême, Charente and studied at the Lycée Montaigne in Bordeaux and it was there, under an inspirational art master, that his desire to be an artist was initiated. He enrolled at L’École des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux and studied under André Edouard Marty. At first, his style was decidedly Cubist, showing the influence of Picasso through the aforementioned L’Hote. However he softened the linear effect somewhat as his career developed and this is particularly apparent in his paintings of nudes. He staged his first solo exhibition in Paris in Rue Visconti quite soon after leaving art school. He also exhibited through his career at other locations in Paris, his home city of Bordeaux, Sainte Maxine, Angoulême and Périgueux but he seems not to have had a particularly commercial attitude to his work apparently sometimes not even turning up to the opening nights. Lacaze was appointed Professor of Fine Art at Collège de Puyguillen and also joined the artistic group Maison des Artistes. Exhibitions:  Paris, Galerie Visconiti; Périgueux, N.T.P.; Angoulême, Galerie Tison d’Argence; Bordeaux, Galerie du Loup; Sainte Maxine, Galerie L’Oleil Fauve. The Musée des Beaux Arts de Bordeaux also exhibited his work.

All Items : Fine Art : Paintings : Oil : N. America : American : Pre 1950 item #1139311 (stock #504)
A beautiful California impressionist landscape oil on board signed lower left Gile, Bold brush work and beautiful palette a true gem by this highly regarded American artist. In excellent condition Measuring 10 x 12.5 framed in a quality hand carved 24k gold frame 17.5 x 20.5 inches overall Appraised by John Moran at $10,000 to 15,000. a fine investment quality painting. Biography

Selden Connor Gile was an important member of the early northern California school of art, he was a founding member of the artist group that called themselves the Society of Six. He was born in Stow, Maine on March 20, 1877, and after attending business college in Maine, Gile moved to California in 1901. He was a payroll master in Lincoln and in Oakland after 1905 for Gladding McBean Company. His art studies were under Perham Nahl, Frank Van Sloun, Spencer Macky, William H. Clapp, and at the California College of Arts and Crafts. Prior to 1914, he painted in the manner of classical California landscape painters such as William Keith. After that time he assumed the palette and style of Impressionism-Fauvism, but remained an "individualist" in his mode of expressing the California scene. During the 1920s, he became the dominant figure in a group of painters known as the Society of Six. The Six were active in the San Francisco Bay area and exhibited regularly at the Oakland Art Gallery. In 1927 Gile moved across the Golden Gate to Tiburon and, shortly thereafter, to a houseboat in Belvedere. He died in San Rafael, California on June 8, 1947.

All Items : Fine Art : Paintings : Oil : N. America : American : Pre 1960 item #1427492 (stock #961)
Vintage American Impressionist Oil Painting Girl Flowers on the Beach by Barton. Oil on 20 x 24" panel signed lower left presented in a quality gallery frame. Harry Lang Barton, artist and illustrator May 12, 1908 - August 12, 2001 Born in Cleveland and raised in Seattle, Harry Barton spent his life doing the thing he truly loved--painting. Whether in the Pacific Northwest around Seattle, Hood Canal, and Puget Sound, or in the Art Students League, Central Park, and the parks and beaches of Long Island, or in Pennsylvania and New England (he often summered in Rockport, Massachusetts, and Kennebunkport, Maine), Harry's life was art. Harry's career as an artist embraced almost every medium and a great many genres: from charcoal and pen and ink to watercolor, tempura, and oil; from his early work in Seattle as a silk-screen artist and an illustrator for the Sterling Theatres and the telephone company, to his New York work as an illustrator of Western pulp fiction, detective and mystery novels, and movie and fashion advertisements, and finally to his extensive activity as a portrait and landscape painter. In the spring of 1945, he decided to study for the summer at the Art Students League in New York with Frank Reilly, and in the fall of that year he was offered work in New York as an illustrator for Gale Phillips Associates. Moving his family from Seattle, he--along with his wife Pauline and his daughters Joan and Linda--took up residence in Bayside, Queens, and soon moved to the Auburndale area of Flushing, where he had his own freelance studio and where he lived the rest of his life. Over the years his illustrations were featured in The Saturday Evening Post, Argosy, Boy's Life, Down East, and American Artist, as well as on movie billboards for Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer and in fashion advertising for Lord & Taylor and Gertz department stores. But his main body of work as an illustrator can be found in hard-cover and paperback novels published by such major firms as Dell, Ace Books, Dial Press, and Farrar Straus & Giroux. Harry's paintings and sketches were exhibited in the Philadelphia Museum of Art; in the Salmagundi Club, Lord & Taylor, the Smith Gallery, and Illustration House in New York in the Blue Heron Gallery in Wellfleet, Cape Cod; in the Schaff Gallery in Cincinnati; and in Mast Cove Gallery in Kennebunkport. He received a number of prizes for his work, and his paintings are held in private collections in the United States, Canada, and Europe. Harry was a member of the American Artists Professional League, the Salmagundi Club, and the Art Students League of New York, where he kept on working throughout his life, studying with--in addition to Frank Reilly--Samuel Edmund Oppenheini, William Draper, and Everett Raymond Kintsler. Harry loved the Art Students League and was very proud of being a Life Member. His Saturday jaunts to the League continued right up to the time when the League closed for the summer three months before he died. He was fortunate in being able to do what he enjoyed most to the very end
All Items : Fine Art : Paintings : Oil : Pre 1970 item #1150191 (stock #523)
A beautiful California landscape oil on canvas board signed lower right Maurice Braun. measuring 11 x 14 inches framed in a quality 24k gold frame.

BiographyMaurice Braun (1877-1941). Painter. Maurice Braun was born in Nagy Bittse, Hungary on Oct. 1, 1877. Braun immigrated with his family to the U.S. in 1881 and settled in NYC. He began drawing at age three and in his early teens was apprenticed to a jeweler. In 1897 Maurice Braun began a five year study period at the NAD followed by one year with Wm M. Chase. He was an established portrait and figure painter in New York before moving to San Diego in 1910. After opening a studio on Point Loma, Maurice Braun founded the San Diego Academy of Art in 1912 and served as its director for many years. Braun remained in San Diego except for the years 1922-24 when he maintained a studio in Silvermine, CT. His Impressionist paintings of the Southwest desert, southern California hills, and High Sierra brought him great national acclaim. At the end of his career he specialized in still lifes of flowers and oriental objets d'art. An ardent follower of Theosophy, their teachings of the unity of nature and man is evident in his work. Maurice Braun died in San Diego on Nov. 7, 1941. Source: Edan Hughes:

All Items : Fine Art : Paintings : Acrylic : Contemporary item #1339197 (stock #268)
Antiquarian Art Co.
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Original acrylic painting on canvas of the Manhattan skyline by Tom Christopher. Signed on verso from his Brill Building project series Times Square 2014. Measuring 30 x 48 x 2 inches.

Tom Christopher (born 1952 is an American artist known for his expressionist urban paintings, mostly of New York City. Christopher began as a commercial artist, and has become a notable artist with worldwide galleries and exhibitions. Christopher is known for his New York City urban paintings. Most of the work is painted using small-batch, handmade acrylic paint. Pencil lines from the initial exploratory sketch stage often remain on the white canvass. His typical images include cabbies, delivery men, skylines, and chaotic New York City scenes. His work is usually done with acrylic paint in an expressionist style.

All Items : Fine Art : Paintings : Oil : Europe : Pre 1960 item #1086153 (stock #417)
Claude Lacaze original oil on panel cubist nudes by the sea signed lower left. measuring Approximately 20 x 30 inches in excellent condition.

Biography

Lacaze was a painter who was heavily influenced by Cubism and Post-Cubism, particularly by fellow Bordeaux painters such as André L’Hote. He was born in Angoulême, Charente and studied at the Lycée Montaigne in Bordeaux and it was there, under an inspirational art master, that his desire to be an artist was initiated. He enrolled at L’École des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux and studied under André Edouard Marty. At first, his style was decidedly Cubist, showing the influence of Picasso through the aforementioned L’Hote. However he softened the linear effect somewhat as his career developed and this is particularly apparent in his paintings of nudes. He staged his first solo exhibition in Paris in Rue Visconti quite soon after leaving art school. He also exhibited through his career at other locations in Paris, his home city of Bordeaux, Sainte Maxine, Angoulême and Périgueux but he seems not to have had a particularly commercial attitude to his work apparently sometimes not even turning up to the opening nights. Lacaze was appointed Professor of Fine Art at Collège de Puyguillen and also joined the artistic group Maison des Artistes. Exhibitions:  Paris, Galerie Visconiti; Périgueux, N.T.P.; Angoulême, Galerie Tison d’Argence; Bordeaux, Galerie du Loup; Sainte Maxine, Galerie L’Oleil Fauve. The Musée des Beaux Arts de Bordeaux also exhibited his work.

All Items : Fine Art : Paintings : Contemporary item #1319224 (stock #738)
Antiquarian Art Co.
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Modernist landscape Marsh series #1 by Ernest Garthwaite. Acrylic on paper measuring 22"w x 30"H.

Biography

Ernest Garthwaite was born in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan in 1940. He studied at Loras College in Iowa, receiving his Bachelor of Arts in 1961, and at the University of Notre Dame in Indiana, receiving his Master of Arts in 1962. He subsequently studied in Europe (including in Italy, Germany, and France) and at the University of Wisconsin in 1964 and the Art Students' League of New York in 1966. Garthwaite's work is represented in over 75 collections, including the Medicine Hat Museum and Art Gallery, New Rochelle Public Library, Art Gallery of Windsor, Bank of Montreal, Concordia University (Montreal), Marymount College (New York), Whyte Museum of the Canadian Rockies (Banff), and York College of the City University of New York.

All Items : Fine Art : Paintings : Oil : N. America : Pre 1910 item #1490415 (stock #1045)
Close Description Original antique painting of a native American Indian woman braiding her daughters hair. Gouache on paper signed lower right L. C. Perry. Presented in the original antique frame. Born in Boston, Lilla Cabot Perry was a key person, along with Mary Cassatt, in bringing French Impressionism* to the United States from France. "For many years, she lectured, wrote, and encouraged American patronage of the style." (Dunn, 16) She was also the artist most closely involved with the Guild of Boston Artists*, which opened its galleries in 1914 to promote accomplished painters and sculptors. She served on the board as the first secretary and worked hard to cultivate persons for financial backing. Pery had prominent Boston social credentials that included the Cabot and Lowell families. Her father was a distinguished surgeon; and her husband's great uncle, Commodore Matthew Perry, opened Japan to the world in 1853. In 1874, she married Professor Thomas Sergeant Perry, a professor of 18th-century literature, and their home became a gathering place for many Boston intellectuals including Henry James, William Dean Howells, and her brother-in-law, painter John LaFarge. She had elite private schooling and began her art studies with Robert Vonnoh and Dennis Bunker at the Cowles School in Boston. Having first traveled to Europe with her family in 1887, she studied in France privately with Alfred Stevens and at the Julian* and Colarossi* Academies. She also exhibited at the salons and expositions and in 1889, attended Claude Monet's exhibition, "Impressions", which "was a revelation for Perry, who decided to take up residence in Giverny." (Dunn, 16) In 1889, Perry and Cecilia Beaux visited Claude Monet at Giverny*, France, and she was highly intrigued with his painting. He, who never took pupils, did give Perry advice and encouraged her to put down on canvas her first impression, saying that was the truest and most pure expression. Between 1889 and 1909, she and her husband spent ten summer seasons in Giverny, where they lived next door to Monet and became close friends. Perry recorded interviews with Monet, who seemed very fond of her, and the result was Perry's book, published in 1927, Reminiscences of Claude Monet. She also successfully encouraged her wealthy friends to purchase Monet's paintings. In 1889, she returned to Boston with one of Monet's paintings, Etretat, one of the first Impressionist works to appear in that area, and she was surprised that no one was very taken with the painting. Several years later, she gave lectures on Monet to the Boston Art Students Association. In 1898, her husband, accepted a college teaching position in Tokyo, Japan as chair of English Literature, and living there until 1901, she painted the landscape and the people, completing more than eighty paintings. Of this period in her life, art historian William Gerdts wrote: "Lilla Perry was one of the most significant of the American painters who went to Japan in the late 19th century; . . . of all the Americans to work there, Perry's work is the least traditional and is the most indebted to the Impressionist aesthetic, and some of her Japanese scenes are, in color and brushwork, extremely close to Monet." (97) In her later years, she lived in the upper class Back Bay area of Boston, and spent her summers in Hancock, New Hampshire. Lilla was a founder and first Secretary of the Guild of Boston Artists. Much of her painting of that period was for her own enjoyment and focused on activities of upper class women, with her daughters frequently serving as the models. She seldom did any preliminary sketching, and pastel was a favorite medium. In very good all original condition overall size 17ʺW × 2.5ʺD × 15ʺH.
All Items : Fine Art : Paintings : Acrylic : Contemporary item #1461206 (stock #1012)
An original Tom Christopher New York painting acrylic on canvas titled "Between the Clock and the Messenger" measuring 48" by 48.5" signed on verso. This painting has been exhibited at Galerie Tamenaga in Paris France with label on stretcher bar.

TOM CHRISTOPHER BIOGRAPHY

"Monet had his water lilies and Tom Christopher has Times Square." --The New Yorker Tom Christopher is a classically trained draughtsman. He received a BFA from the Art Center College in Los Angeles, studying with the legendary Disney animator Ward Kimball and the painter Lorser Fietelson. He then worked for Peterson Publishing drawing automobiles for Motor Trend Magazine, drawing portraits at Disneyland and creating rock posters for CBS Records. After moving to New York in 1981 he went on drawing assignments with Meredith Vieira and John Stossel covering courtroom drama for CBS News in downtown Manhattan. This experience in part formed the foundation for a narrative and journalistic approach to his art. Although born in Hollywood, and steeped in the LA hot rod / skateboard culture, he became obsessed with painting household objects and tools on a Brobdingnagian scale, exhibiting in galleries in the East Village. He would always carry a sketchbook, endlessly drawing and recording everything from subways to skyscrapers. In 1987, NYC was a dark city, crime ridden and gripped by fear. But, as he put it: "One day walking around Times Square, the clouds cleared and I had an epiphany of sorts. The City exploded in a blaze of expressionistic colors with the brilliant laser white light sculpting the buildings, cabs, messengers and scurrying figures. At once I realized my mission; try and capture the narrative, the beauty and the magnetic pull of the epicenter of this modern urban city." Now his subject matter is largely focused on the streets of New York. But calling him a New York painter would be as much a mistake as it would be to dismiss Kirchner as a Berlin cityscene painter. They have both used the subject of the city as a launching pad to explore the many aspects of man's struggle in an urban environment. Indeed, this theme is universal as his paintings have found a following in Europe, especially Paris, Germany and Tokyo. Most of the work is painted using small batch, handmade acrylic paint. Pencil lines from the initial exploratory sketch stage often remain on the white canvass. These raw areas give the painting both breathing room and serve as a reminder of the process. His artistic vocabulary ranges from lines that loop and skit around, to delicate watercolor washes, heavy brushwork to thick impasto with swirls and drips of color. Working with 'at risk' kids he brought these expressionistic colors and large brushwork to the Roseland Ballroom on 53rd St creating the city's largest outdoor mural at 225 by 65 ft. "I think it's interesting to tell a story about people in the city and not necessarily be concerned about what the finished product will look like. The last thing an artist should do is to set out to try and make 'art'. I find that if you have something to say, just paint, most of the time it will find it's own way." Says Mr. Christopher. He was trained in an approach that relies on visual observation and blocking out all else. Actually, he was trained to not listen as it would become too distracting. This is now changing in new works with overheard conversations and fragments of speech finding their way into the artwork as titles of the paintings create a continually evolving narrative thread. "Tom Christopher has become to American painting what Count Basie or Duke Ellington became to American popular music, not completely jazz but owning much to Charlie Parker and Charles Mingus." Written by Dr. Louis Zona, Director and Chief Curator, The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown Ohio.

All Items : Fine Art : Paintings : Acrylic : Contemporary item #1302356 (stock #717)
Antiquarian Art Co.
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Original Acrylic on Canvas titled "Vertigo" measuring 30" x 24" signed verso. Tom Christopher is an American artist known for his expressionist urban paintings, mostly of New York City. Christopher began as a commercial artist, and has become a notable artist with worldwide galleries and exhibitions.
All Items : Fine Art : Paintings : Oil : Pre 1900 item #1378076 (stock #816)
19th Century pastoral landscape oil on canvas. Golden age, old master influenced painting depicting a shepherd with his sheep and a cottage. Signed Wayland, lower right. Wax Relined and presented in an intentionally distressed gold wood frame. Image size, 16 x 20 overall framed size 24.5ʺW × 2.5ʺD × 20.5ʺH.
All Items : Fine Art : Paintings : Oil : N. America : American : Pre 1910 item #1495129 (stock #1049)
An original antique American Impressionist Oil Painting still life of Roses in a Vase by Julian Alden Weir. Oil on canvas signed middle left side presented in a quality contemporary gold gallery frame. Canvas size 11.25" x 15.5" overall framed size 17" x 21". Artist Biography; The youngest of sixteen children of Robert W. Weir, artist and art instructor at West Point Military Academy, J. Alden Weir became one of the leading early American Impressionists. However, his art education began with training in the traditional basic styles and methods from his father. Throughout his career subject matter included landscape, still lifes, and portraits. Although his landscapes increasingly reflected his adoption of Impressionism, his portraits and still lifes remained more realistic and conservative. Weir also completed murals including ones in the Liberal Arts Building of the 1893 Chicago Exposition. They received much acclaim, but mural painting was not a specialty for him. At 18, he enrolled at the National Academy School in New York. From 1873 to 1877, he studied in Europe, part of the time in Paris with Jean Leon Gerome at the Ecole des Beaux Arts. From Gerome, he learned much about classical figure painting and the modeling of forms. Weir also had much admiration for the Old Masters such as Frans Hals and Hans Holbein. Friendship with Jules Bastien-Lepage, French plein-aire painter, encouraged Weir to work directly from nature, which became a modification of influences of the Beaux Arts training he was receiving at the Ecole. It was also the beginning of his path to Impressionism, although when first exposed to this revolutionary style, he was highly disapproving. Of his first encounter with it at an exhibition in Paris, he wrote home to his parents: "I never in my life saw more horrible things. . . .It was worse than the Chamber of Horrors. . . .I was mad for two or three days, not only having paid the money but for the demoralizing effect it must have....."(Gerdts 105) However, increasingly painting by Weir reflected this new style, beginning when he and Bastien-Lepage painted outdoors together, concerning themselves with atmospheric light and everyday subject matter such as peasants working in the fields. Another influence was friendship with James MacNeil Whistler, known for his loosening of style and dark tonalities. In the 1880s Weir focused on still-life painting along with landscape, especially florals in a rather dark palette, which at the time of their creation were counter to his increasing interest in Impressionism. He also was a portrait painter and in 1883, married one of his models, Anna Baker. After 1883, he had a New York studio at 51 West Tenth Street and supported himself and wife with portrait painting and teaching. He became associated with the first generation of American Impressionists that included Childe Hassam and John Twachtman. He and Twachtman traveled in Holland together and also held joint exhibitions including in 1888 at the Society of Painters in Pastel and the next year at the Fifth Avenue Art Galleries. Weir's entries were still life, figure, and scenes from rural Connecticut, with obvious Barbizon School influence of Lepage and realistic tendencies of Gustave, but nothing that one could describe as Impressionism. He was part of the founding of the Society of American Artists, which was a rebellion of European-trained American artists against the constraints of those upholding the standards of the National Academy. Weir was a leading figure in the Society and became increasingly influential in promoting leading-edge French paintings including the collection in America of work by his friend Bastien-Lepage and also of Gustave Courbet and Edouard Manet. However, by 1893, exhibited paintings by Weir were being labelled Impressionistic in what was described by one critic as their "rude style of handling" (Gerdts 106) including their casual attention to detail and atmospheric qualities. Between 1893 and 1897, Weir completed factory landscape paintings that were said to reflect his full commitment to Impressionism. His summer home from 1883 was in Windham, Connecticut, and his factory paintings depicted the thread factories of nearby Willimantic, Connecticut. These realistic, industrial subjects were a departure from pervasive serene, often idealized American landscape painting. Active in art circles, Weir was an organizer of the 1913 Armory Show in New York, which introduced avant-garde European art to the American public, and he was also President of the National Academy of Design from 1915 to 1917. Five years after his death in 1919, a memorial exhibition of his work was held at the Metropolitan Museum in New York.