Julian Alden Weir (1852-1919),
Landscape: Branchville, The Palace Car, c.1900, oil on canvas, 20 1/16 x 24 inches. Brigham Young University Museum of Art, purchase/gift of the Mahonri M. Young Estate, 1959.
Born August 30, 1852, Julien Alden Weir became a leading figure in American Impressionism. Throughout his career, he experimented with various styles and approaches, using subjects from life on his rural Connecticut farm. In this summer scene, Weir uses the bright palette and broken brush strokes of impressionism to depict a peaceful afternoon at his farm in Branchville, Connecticut. What looks like a little house in the middle ground is actually a small movable art studio that Weir devised around 1890, which he called “the palace car.” The studio was fitted with a sled runners and a stove, so that Weir could continue painting in the “outdoors” even in winter.