With its proximity to the cultural hub of New York City and its quieter suburban and rural landscapes, Connecticut was fertile ground for artists and writers in the period of Modernist movements between 1913 and 1979. Many of these cultural figures are well known through biographical and critical studies. Creative Places seeks to show how place played a significant role in creative work, and how in turn the artists and writers influenced communities in Connecticut.
Irene Weir
Education/Curation, Painting/Drawing
1862 – 1944
Irene Weir studied with J.H. Twachtman and her uncles J. Alden Weir and John Ferguson Weir as well as with her grandfather, Robert Walter Weir. She was the first “Directress” of the Norwich Art School from 1890-93. She later taught in Brookline, Massachusetts and in New York City. She founded and was director of the School of Design and Liberal Arts in New York from 1917-29.
- Biography/Description of Work
Of Scottish descent, the Weir family was distinguished by the large number of its members who devoted their lives to the teaching and practice of the fine arts. Irene’s grandfather Robert Walter Weir (1803-1889) was a painter and for forty-two years teacher of art at the United States Military Academy, West Point. Her uncle Julian Alden Weir (1852-1919 ) was a prominent artist and a leader of the New York art world; another, John Ferguson Weir (1841-1926), was a painter who directed the School of Fine Arts at Yale University for over forty years. Irene was born in St. Louis where her father was a teacher. She studied at the Yale School of Fine Arts, graduating in 1906. Subsequently she was a teacher, painter, and writer on art history and criticism throughout her career.
- Sources view
- James, Edward T., James, Janet Wilson, eds., Notable American Women 1607-1950: a Biographical Dictionary.copyright, Radcliffe College. Harvard U. Press, 1971. Heller, Jules and Nancy. North American Women Artists of the Twentieth Century: a Biographical Dictionary. Garland Publishing, Inc., New York, 1995. New York Times. Obituary, 1944.
- Associated Resource(s)