Weir Farm: Home of an American Impressionist (Teaching with Historic Places)

This lesson is part of the National Park Service’s Teaching with Historic Places (TwHP) program.

Weir Farm, in Branchville, Connecticut, exemplifies the "quiet marriage of art and tended landscape that so clearly defined the American Impressionist movement."¹ The painter Julian Alden Weir (1852-1919) acquired the farm in 1882 and summered at this country retreat for nearly forty years. During a period when railroads were expanding, populations were increasing, and America’s agrarian system was being replaced by industry, Weir was one of a group of artists who found comfort and inspiration in the quiet everyday settings of New England, and, in many ways, defined our vision of the American landscape.

Essential Question

View the world through an artist's eye and learn how an important art movement was established in America.

Objective

1. To describe how American Impressionism replaced earlier forms of landscape painting at the end of the 19th century;
2. To describe the techniques associated with Impressionism;
3. To explain the importance of his farm to Weir’s creative process;
4. To investigate the work of artists currently working in their own community and where they get their inspiration.

Full Lesson Plan