Robert Walter Weir - Life and Career

Life and Career

Robert Weir was born on June 18, 1803, in New Rochelle, New York to Robert and Mary Katherine (Brinkley) Weir. Weir never graduated from college and at age 18, in 1821, left a job as a mercantile clerk to pursue painting. He studied art in New York City from 1822–24, teaching himself drawing and painting, before departing in 1824 to study in Italy. He remained in Florence from 1824–25, and in Rome from 1825–27, during which time he studied the works of Michelangelo, Raphael, and other Italian masters of the Renaissance. Weir returned to New York in 1827 to accompany a sick friend. He remained in New York until 1834 and became an integral part of its artist. He was then appointed as Teacher of Drawing, later Professor of Drawing, at the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York.

Replacing the late Thomas Grimbrede, Weir was the fifth artist to hold the position of art instructor at the academy. In this post for forty-two years (1834–1876), he instructed many of the future commanders of the American Civil War. Notably, James Abbott McNeill Whistler and Seth Eastman were among his students. He died in New York City on May 1, 1889.