Portrait of a Lady with a Dog (Anna Baker Weir)
J. Alden Weir
ca. 1890
Medium
Painting
Classification
Painting
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mahonri Sharp Young
Accession Number
1977.92
Tags
dogknee length
About this artwork
J. Alden Weir taught painting classes in New York City while he cultivated his reputation as a portrait artist. Nineteen-year-old Anna Dwight Baker was one of his students, and after a brief courtship the two married in 1883. Anna Weir's friends variously described her as "ethereal," "like some beautiful dream woman," qualities her husband captured in this portrait of her with his subtle, impressionistic style. She leans forward in a black ladder-back chair, holding her dog, Gyp, in her lap. Jus...