WEIR, Robert Walter, artist, born in New Rochelle, New York, 18 June, 1803. He was engaged in commercial occupations until the age of nineteen, at which time he decided to adopt art as a profession and had some instruction from John Wesley Jarvis. After painting for several years in New York he went in 1824 to Florence, where he executed his "Christ and Nicodemus" and "The Angel relieving Peter," and thence, in 1825, to Rome. In 1828 he became an associate member of the National academy, and the following year he was elected an academician. He succeeded Charles R. Leslie in 1832 as professor of drawing at the United States military academy at West Point, which post he held for forty-two years. He has recently resided in New York city. His portrait was painted by Daniel Huntington, and is in the library of the United States military academy. Professor Weir is perhaps best known by his historical paintings, and was one of the first American artists to practise this branch of art. His numerous works, in many of which he was especially effective in the rendering of the accessories and still-life, include "The Belle of the Carnival" (1836); "The Bourbons' Last March";" Landing of Henry Hudson" (1842); " Indian Captive"; " Taking the Veil" ; " Church of the Holy Innocents at Highland Falls, West Point," in the Corcoran gallery, Washington (1847);" Embarkation of the Pilgrims " (1845), in the rotunda of the capitol at Washington; "The Evening of the Crucifixion" (1867); " Virgil and Dante crossing the Styx" (1869); " Christ in the Garden" (1873); " The Portico of the Palace of Octavia, Rome" (1874) ; "Our Lord on the Mount of Olives" (1877); "Indian Falls" (1878) ; "Titian in his Studio "; " Last Communion of Henry Clay," in water-color; and " Columbus before the Council of Salamanca" (1884). He has also executed a number of pot-traits, including one of Red Jacket.--His son, John Ferguson, artist, born in West Point, New York, 28 August, 1841, began to paint under his father. He opened a studio in New York in 1861, was elected an associate of the National academy in 1864, and an academician in 1866. In 1869 and again in 1880 he went abroad, and, after returning from his first trip in 1869, he became director of the School of fine arts at Yale. He was appointed judge of the fine arts at the Centennial exhibition, Philadelphia, in 1876, and wrote the official report on his department. His two best-known pictures are " The Gun-Foundry," exhibited at the National academy in 1867, in Paris the same year, and in Philadelphia in 1876, and " Forging the Shaft" (1868). The latter was burned, but a replica was exhibited in Paris in 1878. Among his other works are "Sunset at West Point" (1859); " The Christmas Bell" (1860) ; "The Culprit Fay" (1861) ; "Tapping the Furnace " (1872); " The Confessional," shown at Philadelphia in 1876: "Venice" (1887); and various portraits, including those of the faculty of the Yale theological school (1882), and S. Wells Williams (1883). Of late years he has given some attention to sculpture, and has produced a statue of the elder Benjamin Silliman, which stands on the Yale college grounds (1884)i --Another son, Julian Alden, artist, born at West Point, New York, 30 August, 1852, studied under his father and Jean L. Gerome. He is noted for his excellent portraits, and has also painted genre pieces with success. In Paris he received honorable mention at the salon of 1881, and in 1888 he was awarded the prize, at the exhibition of the American art association, for his "Idle Hours." His studio is in New York, where he was one of the founders of the Society of American artists, and was elected an associate of the National academy in 1885 and an academician the following year. Among his works are "A Brittany Interior" (1875) . " Brittany Peasant-Girl" and "Study of an Old Peasant" (1877)" " Breton Interior" (1878); "The Muse of Music" (1880)" "Jeune Fille" and " The Good Samaritan" (1881); and portraits of Robert W. Weir (1880)" Warren Delano and Olin L. Warner (1881); Richard Grant White (1883)" Peter Cooper (1884); and John Gilbert (1888). Two of Professor Robert W. Weir's sons, Gulian Verplanck and William Bayard, were in the regular army and served through the civil war, while Henry C. served in the volunteer army and attained the brevet rank of colonel. Another son, Robert, was in the navy.