Sperry Andrews, 87, Painter Who Preserved Weir Home
Hyfler/Rosner
Now I post the husband's.
Sperry Andrews, 87, Painter Who Preserved Weir Home
BYLINE: By MONICA POTTS NY Times
http://www.nps.gov/wefa/Gallery/art16.htm
http://www.nps.gov/wefa/Gallery/art18.htm
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http://www.nps.gov/wefa/Gallery/art13.htm
Sperry Andrews, a painter who with his wife, Doris Bass
Andrews, helped preserve the home of the influential
American artist Julian Alden Weir as a national park, died
on July 14 in Danbury, Conn. He was 87 and lived at the Weir
farmhouse in Ridgefield, Conn.
The cause was pneumonia, his family said.
He and his wife, who was also an artist, moved to the area
in 1948, and later into the farmhouse on Nod Hill Road, once
owned by Weir, a 19th-century American Impressionist.
In the early 1880's Weir turned his farm into a country
retreat where his artist friends would visit and paint the
surrounding landscape. They included Albert Pinkham Ryder,
Childe Hassam, John Twachtman and John Singer Sargent. Some
of them, including Weir, were among the founders of the
group known as the Ten, painters who formed the core of
American Impressionism.
The Weir property, which grew to 238 acres when he owned it,
had been divided up and sold in pieces over the years by the
family when the Andrewses bought the farmhouse in 1958; one
of Weir's daughters had donated substantial portions of her
share to the Nature Conservancy as the Weir Nature Preserve.
In the late 1970's and early 80's, when nearby properties,
including parcels of the original farmstead, were being
developed for residential use, the Andrewses and others
began their effort to establish their farm as a historic
site.
The 74-acre Weir Farm National Historic Site, which
straddles the towns of Ridgefield and Wilton, became a
national park in 1990, the only one dedicated to American
painting and painters. The Andrewses were granted lifetime
tenancy and, with Mr. Andrews's death, the Weir house will
now be open to park visitors.
The National Park Service offers guided tours of the
property, and the Weir Farm Trust, a private organization
that works with the service, runs educational programs and
an artist-in-residence program.
Charles Sperry Andrews III was born in Manhattan in 1917. He
studied at the National Academy of Design in New York and
later at the Art Students League of New York, where he met
his future wife when they shared a classroom easel. He
served in the Army during World War II.
Mr. Andrews's work, primarily oil and watercolor landscapes,
has been exhibited at several galleries in Connecticut and
Manhattan. In 1994 he was elected to the National Academy of
Design. Some of his work will be displayed at the visitors'
center at the Weir farm, beginning Sept. 14.
He is survived by his brother, David of Worthington, Ohio;
his daughter, Catherine Barrett Andrews of Madison, Ga., and
Ridgefield; two sons, Charles Sperry Andrews IV of Sedona,
Ariz., and Dr. Albert Ballard Andrews of Wilton; and seven
grandchildren. His wife died in 2003.