History & Culture

“Weir found the world beautiful and he spent his life showing others the visions he had seen.” - Dorothy Weir Young (1890-1947)

In 1882, the American artist Julian Alden Weir (1852-1919) traded a still life painting he had purchased for $560 for a 153-acre farm in Branchville, Connecticut. Here, amidst rocky fields and woodlands, Weir spent nearly four decades painting. His artist friends Childe Hassam, John Twachtman, Emil Carlsen, and Albert Pinkham Ryder often joined him. Together, they created masterpieces of light and color on canvas that came to define American Impressionism. After his death, Weir’s daughter Dorothy Weir Young, an artist in her own right, and her husband, sculptor Mahonri Young, carried on the artistic legacy at Weir Farm. They were followed by New England painters Sperry and Doris Andrews.

Today, the 68-acre site is the only National Historical Park to offer the home, studio, and grounds of an important late 19th-century American artist whose home and land were integral to his artistic vision and to the growth of a national style of painting.