Evening star., 1943-02-21
Etchings Of ]. Alden Weir
Are Acquired by Library
Fine Collection of Prints
On View Reveal the Artists
Brilliant and Delightful Talent

Keppel, 81 prints were assembled
by his daughter, Caroline Weir Ely
and displayed by Frederick Keppel
& Co. in New York. The foreword
to this catalogue, written by Mrs.
Ely, and the catalogue itself with her
annotationS, give interesting facts
concerning some of the prints now
here, as well as of the artists way
of working
1t was apparently portrait
etching by Van Dyck which Mr..
Weir owned that started him on the
road to printmaking. His is obviously
students copy, but boldly rem
dered. Almost Immediately after this
excursion into new realm of eX-
preston Mr.. Weir turned to original
themes, nearby subjects-and his
second venture was an etching done
in a manner not yet assured, but
his own, of two dogs on a hearth
which seems to have completed his
novitiate, for from then on he COM
pletely commanded his medium.
With my father" Mrs. Ely says,
"lt was not SO much the method as
the art which he sought, and often
on the bitten plates will be found
changes made in dry point. +"
In etching, as in all his work, he
was continually seeking something
new, and once he had finished and
proved his plate he lost interest and
took up the next problem" This
accounts for the diversity of his
prints.
In 1889, while abroad, Mr.. Weir
spent some time on the Isle of Man,
from whence he brought back, as
souvenir, a series of little etched
plates of charming character. Some
of these are smaller than a mans
hand, but freely and exauisitelv
rendered. The same skill finds ex-
preston in number of landscapes
IN the vicinity of his country home
at Branchville, Conn. With a good
supply of small plates and etching
needles he and Twachtman used, it
Is said, to go off for whole davs
afleld, getting as far from home at
times AS South NorWalk or Cos Cob,
What fun they must have had!
But Weir seems never to have
been at a loss for subjects. There
was always his family and there
were interesting places in the
vicinity of his New York home.
IL East Twelfth street. christmas
Greens" one of the most delightful
OF all his etchings, was dorie there
ana belonging to the family group
are charming impressions of "The
Little Student" and Rocking Chair"
mat an ugly subject can be so
transcribed that it attains beauty is
evidenced by his etching of Coon
Alley; and that beauty turks almost
everywhere for discerning ewes is
likewise evidenced by Blacksmith
Shop" and Carpenter Shop" both
OF which were discovered in the
Greenwich Village quarter of old
New York.
Interest is added to these etchines
by finding in some reflection of the
works of other artists. In a few
there is glimmer of Rembrandt
IN others more painterlike in quality.
something of the work of Cecilia
Beaux. Probably Mr.. Weir himself
was unconscious of being influenced
by others, and perhaps it was in
reality not influence, but instinct
which took him down the same roads
that others had travelled or were
travelling.
Something should be said of the
portraits of which there is a dis
tinguished group, including several
noted members of the Weir family.
They are very striking. Also there
Is one engraving "Arcturus" -
fanciful but beautifully drawn in
outline and delicately executed-in
style both of the past and the
present-an evidence that art has
rock foundation and is not set upon
the shifting sands of arbitrary
opinion. The Library of Congress
does we'll to remind us of this fact.