Their honeymoon took them to Europe for six months, during which Weir’s brother John was in charge at the Branchville farm. He regularly wrote Weir of its virtues, saying: “I advise you to hang on to this place, old boy; a ‘lonesome lodge’ which a pleasant place of retreat in times of storm or drought—is no bad thing to have—for an artist—keep it trim and untrammeled and you will find it a haven of refuge.” Weir, abroad in Venice, also found himself yearning for his rural retreat, writing to John, “Anna and I have both often wished to be at old Branchville.” They returned to the United States in September 1883, and Weir made Branchville his primary residence for the next thirty-six years.
During the 1880s and early 1890s, Weir matured as an artist, experimenting with etching and developing a new approach to landscape painting derived in part from the influence of Japanese art and from that of French Impressionists, whose work he was among the first to champion in America. He moved away from his traditional teachings and focused on his personal response to nature. He wrote: “I feel that I can enjoy studying any phase of nature, which before I had restricted to preconceived notions of what it ought to be.” Weir exhibited his new style of painting with Society of Painters in Pastels, the New York Etching Club, and the Universal Exposition in Paris, where he won a silver medal. In his personal life, Weir built a studio on the grounds on his Branchville farm, and became a father to three daughters—Caroline, Dorothy and Cora.
Anna’s sudden death in 1892, a week after Cora’s birth, was a shattering blow. Weir handled the tragedy by leaving Branchville and spending several months in Chicago, where he immersed himself in painting one of the murals for the Manufacturing and Liberal Arts Building at the World’s Columbian Exposition. Anna’s sister Ella was available to take charge of the baby and her two older sisters while Julian was away. Letters between Julian and his sister-in-law show his gradual realization that Ella could fill the void in his life. They were married in Boston in October 1893.
