Robert Walter Weir

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Robert Walter Weir (18 June 1803 - 1 May 1889) was an American portrait and historical painter, born in New York City. He was briefly a pupil of Jarvis, studied in Italy, and was elected to the National Academy of Design in 1829, and was teacher of drawing at the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1834-1846, and professor of drawing there in 1846-1876. He died in New York City in 1889. Among his better-known works are: The Embarkation of the Pilgrims (in the rotunda of the United States Capitol at Washington, D.C.); Landing of Hendrik Hudson; Evening of the Crucifixion; Columbus before the Council of Salamanca; Our Lord on the Mount of Olives; Virgil and Dante crossing the Styx.

His son, John Ferguson Weir (born 1841) was a painter and sculptor, and became a Member of the National Academy of Design in 1866, and was made director of the Yale University Art School in 1868. Another son, Julian Alden Weir (born 1852), studied under his father, and under J.-L. Gerôme, and became a distinguished portrait, figure and landscape painter. He was one of the founders of the Society of American Artists in 1877, and became a member of the National Academy of Design (1886) and of the Ten American Painters, New York.

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This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.