New-York tribune., 1919-12-09

cradle period after his return from
Paris Weir was still under the rather
sepressive influence of that city's artis-
tic tradition. 1t is not a remarkable
picture, but it is a good one, a dis
tinction which, as has been noted
above, is always cropping out in the
annals of Weir
His Partisan habit, If it may be SO
described. lasted into the 91s Bat
all the time he had been mulling over
the pressionistic hypothesis, expert
menting with problems of light Then
he took the plunge. Instead of the rich,
sometimes fat" tone which had dis
tinguished his pictures, especially his
lovely pictures of flowers and still life,
there appeared in his landscapes an SIR
which was not of the studio, but which
seemed to blow straight from out OF
doors. His touch in this new phase
lacked certainty at first. Memory brings
back in sharp vividness the earliest ex-
hibitlon he made of distinctly impress
sionistic landscapes. They had vitality,
yet they did not quite arrive. The
general effect was a trifle thin. Forms
were fumbled with rather than author
itatively defined. The color lacked
quality. Yet quality" that most elu-
sive of all the elements in painting,
was to prove precisely the secret Of
Weir'S ultimate triumph.
Mural Paintings
He painted the figure, within clearly
marked limita tions. There was in him
no inspiration for the big, dramatic
composition and neither had he any
marked prediction for purely decors-
tive motives. There was no mistaking
his relation to the group of artists
who had their initiation into mural
painting at Chicago at the time of tho
Worlds Fair in 1892. They were all
afre with the excitment of a new op-
portunity. Weir was as eager as any in
the band. But his dome was one of the
weakest. most jejune. Of all those
painted in the porticoes of the Liberal
Arts Building. Mural painting was not
for him. Nor was the art of stained
glass, in which he once made venture.
He painted the figure with a fns
adequacy, as he drew it in his few etch-
ings. After all. he had not wasted his
time in the atelier of Gerome. The
Frenchman had taught him how to
draw, If he had not taught him how,
in any very brilliant fashion, to de-
sign. When he turned to landscape he
added to the adequacy, the charm, Of
his figure paintings merit which he
drew in part from his subject Give
him struggling stone wall or rail
fence irclosing a Connectieat pas ture,
farme, at his plow, the bridge over
New England stream. the roofs Of
factory town, and, above all, trees,
plenty of racy North American trees,
with the very spirit of our country
side in their sturdy trunks and shim-
mering LEAKAGE, and he could translate
it all into incompatible beauty. The
light of the impressio.fsts became tho
light of Weir, silvery and exquisite.
Earth and sky took on an investiturs
Of artistic freshness which only he
could give them-and moved US with
the urgency of absolute truth. When
he painted one of these landscapes
Of his he gave 1t thu delicate, visionary
loveliness of dream, yet ne left the
picture the unmistakable portrait OF
place. He was always tackling new
themes; his life was, as has been ind!-
Gated, one long endeavor, but in the
paintings of his later period his genius
seems to have come home, to have
passed with kind of effortless felicity
into true artistic form They are the
final legacy of Weir, rounding out,
bringing to climax, all the loyal
characteristics at which we have
glanced. They explain why he never
lost his hold upon the imaginations Of
his admirers. Those who watched him
knew, from the beginning. that he was
In pursuit Of . glorious ideal. ThW
saw him realise IT. .-es