Lot 23344: ROBERT WALTER WEIR (American 1803-1889) Last of

ROBERT WALTER WEIR (American 1803-1889) Last of the Mohicans Oil on canvas 49-1/2 x 40 inches (125.7 x 101.6 cm) Born in New York City, Robert Weir studied under John Wesley Jarvis and Robert Cooke. Weir was a leading painter of religious subjects in America during the years 1830 to 1880, and renowned for his history paintings, portraits and images with literary themes from the novels of James Fennimore Cooper and Washington Irving. Weir taught painting at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. In addition to his own sons, John Ferguson and Julian Alden Weir, his students included Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E Lee, and James Whistler. Last of the Mohicans refers to the subject of James Fennimore Cooper's novel of the same title. In this attractive work, Weir conveys the romantic narrative of the story by portraying a lone Mohican against a background of open sea in the distance. The composition points to the cause of the Mohican tribe's demise-the arrival of the American colonists from a land beyond the sea.