Robert Weir was born in New York City in 1803.  He is most remembered as an influential teacher. He studied under John Wesley Jarvis and Robert Cooke, an English heraldic artist.  When he was just a teenager, his paintings were so remarkable that they sold in New York as the work of the Old Masters.  He became a professional artist about 1821 and was a portraitist, genre painter, and an early member of the Hudson River School.  He studied in Italy from 1824 to 1827.  Eventually he set up his own studio in New York before starting a teaching career at the US Military Academy at West Point that spanned 42 years.

Studied

John Wesley Jarvis, NYC; Robert Cox, NYC, 1818; Am. Acad. FA, c.1821; Florence, 1824-27, with P. Benvenuti, Florence, Italy.

Member

National Academy, 1829.

Exhibited

Brooklyn AA, 1864, 1868, 1870, 1872; NAD, 1827-51, 1864-81; West Point Mus., 1976 (retrospective).

Work

MMA; BMFA; West Point Mus.; NGA; NYC Hall; New York Hist. Soc.; Weirs best-known work, “The Embarkation of the Pilgrims” is in the Rotunda of the Capitol at Washington

Resources

Who’s Who, 3504