[1] This commission introduced him to the art world of New York City, and led to his renting a small room in the Tenth Street Studio, where he became acquainted with many of the rising young artists of the day.

It was also painted at the West Point Foundry, but after the end of the Civil War, and showed the creation of a great shaft for the propeller of an ocean liner.

While establishing the foundations of the Yale School of Fine Arts, John enlisted the help of his brother, Julian Alden Weir, who at the time was studying at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.

Thus, though John was working at an American university, the curriculum and organization of the school was based largely on European methods, which coincided with the multicultural nature of all three Weirs’ painting careers.

When Julian returned to America after living in Paris for four years, he carried on the family legacy and took a teaching position at the Women’s Art School of the Cooper Union, in New York.

Julian’s teaching was perhaps the most forward-looking among his family, as he embraced both old and new sources, extolling the importance of Old Master paintings, but also promoting the radical style of the Impressionists.

Their daughter, Edith Dean Weir, (wife of James De Wolf Perry) was a noted painter of miniatures, studying under Lucia Fairchild Fuller.