Robert Walter Weir (1803-1889)

Artist

• His most prominent work is Embarkation of the Pilgrims, at the Rotunda at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda.
• The highest auction price was $1,202,500 in 2008 for Greenwich Boat Club.
• More recently, one of his two Landing of the Henry Hudson paintings sold at auction in May, 2018 for $200,000.
• His art was featured on a U.S. $50 bill.
• Over 20 museums have (or perhaps recently had) Robert Walter Weir paintings in their collections.
• Two of his 16 children also became prominent painters: Julian Alden Weir and John Ferguson Weir. Several other descendants of his are also artists.

Full List of Works

There are, however, likely hundreds of his works not listed. He produced many sketches, many of which likely do not have his name on them. Likewise, he produced many paintings (especially portraits) without his signature on them. Most of these works, while not 'lost forever', will likely be 'unattributed forever'. Likewise, there are likely some duplicate entries (for example, are "Aaron Converting His Staff into a Serpent" and "Moses and the Brazen Serpent" two different paintings, or two different names for the same painting?).

Sample Works:

Historical	Columbus Before the Council at Salamanca, 1877	Embarkation of the Pilgrims, 1843	Landing of the Henry Hudson, 1835
Religious	The Taking of the Veil, 1863	Two Marys at the Sepulchre, 1865	The Last Communion of Henry Clay, 1852
Portraits	Portrait of Col. Robert E. Lee, 1852	Portrait of General Winfield Scott, ca. 1855	Lady in a Red Bodice, ca. 1830
Genre Paintings	The Greenwich Boat Club, 1833	The Microscope, 1849	U.S. Volunteer Militia, ca. 1842
Landscapes	Kaaterskill Falls, New York, ca. 1850	View of the Hudson River, 1864	Niagara Falls, ca. 1855

Copyrights...

Painting Names

Sometimes, it is a matter of shortening a long name ("Christ In The Garden of Gethsemane" to "Christ in the Garden"). Some extraneous titles appear to be due using memory, rather than a written title, to refer to a painting ("Christ's Journey to Emmaus", "Christ on the Way to Emmaus, Christ on His Way to Emmaus", "The Way to Emmaus"). Very few paintings have a title written on them, so sometimes an owner, auctioneer, or art historians will come up with a name, as "Untitled" often doesn't cut it (e.g. "Robed Scholar" for "The Old Merchant"). In at least one case, an auctioneer (or perhaps owner) appears to have embellished the truth for purposes of greed, such as the painting auctioned as "Amerigo Vespucci" (Weir titled it "The Old Merchant").

To deal with this, I record the 'best' name I can determine, and have a separate database field for alternate names. If I know Weir had a title, I normally would use that (unless another name is much more commonly used). Without knowing what Weir titled the painting, I would normally go with the earliest written reference.

Confusing things further is the fact that Weir made several copies of a fair number of his better known paintings. For those, I normally use the same name for all of them (keeping one entry for each).

Copies/Duplicates

One great example is The Taking of the Veil (a/k/a The Consecration of a Nun). He was present for the event in 1826, and made a sketch. 37 years later, he created an oil painting of the same subject (which is among his better known works).

Other examples include The Last Communion of Henry Clay (with at least 2 oil paintings and 3 studies for it), Embarkation of the Pilgrims (with the original at the U.S. Capitol building painted in 1843, and a replica painted in 1857), Columbus Before the Council at Salamanca (there appear to be 3 oil paintings and 2 studies/tracings), Moses Viewing the Promised Land (the same scene painted in two fairly different ways), and even his portrait of General Winfield Scott (it appears he made 5 copies of this, several very similar to one another), Washington's Headquarters at Newburgh (one with cows in front, one without), and View of the Hudson River (with about 3 very similar versions).

Credits

• Irene Weir, one of Robert Walter Weir's granddaughters. She wrote "Robert W. Weir, Artist" (published posthumously in 1947). While it contained no pictures, it referenced many of his paintings, and included excerpts from a number of letters to/from Robert Walter Weir.
• Kent Ahrens, who published his 304 page dissertation on Robert Walter Weir in 1972. It can be ordered here (unfortunately, the site does not allow direct links to individual dissertations, so search for 'Robert Walter Weir').
• William H. Gerdts, whose "Robert Weir: Artist and Teacher of West Point" was published in 1976 in conjunction with an exhibition at West Point.

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