A Thing Done

1911 to 1919

 

Julian Alden Weir c. 1910

National Park Service, Weir Farm National Historic Site

Weir, and many of his artist friends, exhibited in Armory Show of 1913-an international show of over three hundred artists that boasted the largest attendance of an art exhibition in New York. Over 100,000 people were in attendance and saw the many works exhibited. The Armory Show marked the introduction of new "modern" artists like Marcel Duchamp and Pablo Picasso. With the success of the show, Weir realized that "these young artists are getting at the real thing, they are the ones to watch. Our work is a thing done."

Nonetheless, this show was just one event in the early 1900s that marked Weir's establishment as a respected artist. Critical acclaim ultimately brought Weir to the forefront of the American art establishment. In 1915, he was elected President of the National Academy of Design and granted membership in the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Association of American Painters and Sculptors, and the Board of Directors at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Weir was appointed to the National Commission on Fine Arts as "Painter Member" in 1916 and received honorary degrees from Princeton (1916) and Yale (1917).

Weir died on December 8, 1919 due to heart disease. During his illness, he was comforted by his time at the Branchville farm, where he would sit on the porch, observe the farm's natural beauty, and reflect on his full life. As Weir wrote: "Really, I know not what I am best at. I believe I am a fisherman, dreamer and lover of nature…and if I lived to 120 I might become an artist."