Born into an artistic family, J. Alden Weir received early training from his father, Robert, drawing instructor at the U.S. Military Academy, and his older half brother, John. As a teenager, he sketched views around West Point and copied Old Master paintings. Before leaving for France in September 1873, he studied in the Schools of the National Academy of Design (Antique, 1870-2; Life, 1871). In Paris he enrolled at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts under Jean-L‚on G‚r"me. He remained in Europe until 1877, spending time in Holland, Belgium, Spain, and Brittany. At this time, he became a close friend of Jules Bastien-Lepage.
Weir returned to New York City where he helped form the Society of American Artists, serving consecutively as its secretary, vice president, and president in 1880-82. He supported himself by teaching at the Cooper Union and, later, at the Art Students League (1885-97). In 1882 he bought a farm at Branchville, Connecticut, which served as his country residence until his death. He married Anne D. Baker in 1883 and they spent some time in Europe that year. During the decade of the 1880s, he worked in figure, landscape, and still life themes and also experimented in the etching and pastel media. Following another trip to Europe in 1889, he fell under the influence of impressionism, painting bright, stylistically progressive landscapes into the twentieth century. With other American impressionists, he formed The Ten American Painters exhibiting organization in 1897.
As an older artist, Weir became devoted to the interests of the National Academy. He was awarded its Inness Gold Medal in 1906, and the next year, was elected to the Council, serving until 1914, with one interruption. He became the Academy's president in 1915 but was forced to resign two years later because of poor health. That year, he donated a portrait by his father to the Academy.
