TitleSelf-Portrait
Artist
Julian Alden Weir
(American, 1852 - 1919)
Date1886
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 21 × 17 in.
Framed: 30 15/16 × 27 1/16 × 3 1/4 in.
SignedSigned upper right: "J. Alden Weir/1886"
SubmissionANA diploma presentation, October 1, 1886
Credit LineNational Academy of Design, New York, NY
Object number1390-P
Label TextWeir's self-portrait shows the artist at a transitional moment in the evolution of his technique. The brushwork is much freer than in his earlier portrait of George Maynard (1393-P); paint is applied thickly to the bridge of the nose and the highlighted temple, and the entire face is textured by blocky, lateral strokes. The lighting remains dim and mysterious, however, and forms, far from appearing flattened, exhibit a pronounced three-dimensional plasticity.Observations by Doreen Bolger Burke and Michael Quick suggest that Weir intended this work as a kind of summation of his early career. Burke points out that the hazy painting shown behind Weir is his portrait of his father, Robert W. Weir (1878, private collection): "[I]ts inclusion acknowledges the debt which the artist owed to his first mentor--his father is, quite literally, looking over his shoulder" (Burke, Julian Alden Weir and the National Academy of Design, 11). The label "2428" is visible on the frame of Robert W. Weir, a conspicuous reminder that the painting bore that number when exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1883. In addition to portraiture, Weir was known at the time for still lifes of flowers and vessels; Quick posits that the bluish vase at left functions as an allusion to that aspect of the artist's work (Quick, AbT, 28).
Collections
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