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.
Dorothy Weir Young
Painting/Drawing, Journalism/Non-Fiction
1890 – 1947
Dorothy Weir Young was a modern woman of the 1920s, becoming a professional artist in the New York art world while simultaneously attending to the management of the family farm in Branchville, Connecticut, and care of her step-mother Ella Baker Weir. Her attention to preserving the legacy of J. Alden Weir was crucial to the eventual designation of Weir Farm as a National Historic Site.
- Biography/Description of Work
Middle child of J. Alden Weir, Dorothy grew up at her mother’s family farm in Windham and studied art under her father and at the National Academy of Design and the Art Students League of New York. She became a painter and printmaker and was married to sculptor Mahonri Young in 1931. She is perhaps best known for her biography of her father, “The Life and Letters of J. Alden Weir,” researched and written over the course of forty years, and for her efforts to preserve the Weir farm in the Branchville section of Wilton, where she and her husband both had studios.
- Sources view
- Weir Collection, Brigham Young University. http://files.lib.byu.edu/ead/XML/MSS1291.xml
Weir Farm National Historic Site, National Park Service. http://www.nps.gov/wefa/photosmultimedia/artwork-dorothyweiryoung.htm
Keiner, Harry. 1979. Windham Center National Register Historic District Nomination No. 79002655. National Park Service. - Associated Resource(s)