East Rock, New Haven, c. 1901
Oil on canvas, 30 1/2 x 44 1/2”
Signed lower right
John Weir, founding director of Yale University’s School of Fine Arts, was loyal to the academic traditions of his artist father, Robert Walter Weir, when his young brother, J. Alden Weir, developed into an Impressionist in about 1890. John was appalled at first, but in time he came to appreciate the new aesthetic.
He melds here the two modes most popular in the early 1900s. The close range of autumnal tones, as well as the texture and modeling of the foliage, are Tonalist, while the great rock is bathed in a soft Impressionist light.