Watercolors By Truman Seymour

At Weir Farm Through The End Of The Year

WILTON — Through December 30, The Weir Farm Art Center is presenting a rare exhibition, “On Sight: Watercolors by Truman Seymour,” featuring late 19th Century watercolors by Truman Seymour (1824-1891) in The Burlingham Gallery at Weir Farm National Historic Site.

Truman Seymour (1824-1891) was married to Julian Alden Weir’s half-sister, Louisa. He was also a masterful watercolorist who produced a remarkable body of work during his retirement in Europe.  These works have remained in Seymour’s family since his death in 1891, preserved out of the sunlight for over 115 years. Their vivid colors are as fresh as they were when Seymour painted them. With the exception of two modern exhibitions: one at West Point in 1974, the other at the Everhart Museum in 1986, they have been virtually unknown to the public. 

Seymour’s art training started when at the age of 18 he entered West Point, where drawing classes were required. These classes included the study of color, the human figure, and landscape subjects such as topography and aerial perspective.  As a West Point cadet, Seymour studied drawing under Robert Walter Weir (1803-1889), Julian’s father.  Evidently he was a successful student because Seymour returned to the military academy in 1850 as Assistant Professor of Drawing. Soon thereafter he married Robert Weir’s daughter by his second wife, and thus became a member of the extended artistic Weir family. 

Seymour’s ability to capture broad panoramic views reflects his training in aerial perspective at West Point, and his dramatic skies show the influence of J.M.W. Turner. Seymour’s interest in fragmentary architectural settings relate both to photography and to the writings of John Ruskin, the most famous cultural theorist of the mid-to-late 19th Century. Ruskin argued that modern landscape painters, and particularly Turner, pursued truth through observation rather than idealized compositions, and thus were superior to the Old Masters.

Seymour’s direct renderings combine Ruskin’s natural world and Turner’s rapid, confident brush. His fresh, light-filled watercolors document late 19th Century Europe but they remain timeless in their immediacy.

The exhibition as a fascinating, but little known tangent to J. Alden Weir’s life story. 

All the works exhibited are for sale. A portion of the proceeds will benefit the Weir Farm Art Center.

Weir Farm Art Center is a private, nonprofit organization and the cooperating association of Weir Farm National Historic Site, Connecticut’s only national park and the only national park dedicated to American painting. The site straddles the towns of Ridgefield and Wilton.

Weir Farm Art Center was founded as the Weir Farm Heritage Trust in 1989 by grassroots preservationists who succeeded in protecting the former home, studio and farm of American artist J. Alden Weir (1852-1919) from real estate development. Located in the Weir Farm National Historic Site visitor center, the Weir Farm Art Center presents educational programs that fulfill its mission, to sustain and promote the legacy of J. Alden Weir, including exhibitions, lectures, children’s art classes and the Artist in Residence program. In 2005, ownership of the 110 acre Weir Preserve, founded by Cora Weir Burlingham, was transferred to the Weir Farm Art Center by the Connecticut Chapter of The Nature Conservancy.  Weir Farm Art Center operations and programs are funded by charitable grants and donations.

Through the end of October, Burlingham House Visitor Center is open Wednesday through Sunday from 9 am until 5 pm; November through December the center is open Thursday through Sunday from 10 am until 4 pm. For additional information call Weir Farm Art Center at 203-761-9945.