The U.S. Mint commissioned its artists to create candidate designs for the Weir Farm National Historic Site quarter; 15 were reviewed for accuracy, edited, finalized and presented in June 2018. The Citizen Coinage Advisory Committee and the Commission of Fine Arts asked for revisions to seven of them and a resubmission.
Liaisons from the historic site favored two of the seven designs. One featured an artist in a long smock painting outside Julian Alden Weir’s rustic studio. The other depicted a portable easel holding a canvas with an artist’s painting of the Weir house and studio portrayed in greater detail than the rest of the design.
Of the remaining five designs, one showed a stone wall in front of the Weir house. In the right foreground, a French easel featured a canvas depicting Weir’s studio. In another design, an easel with the beginnings of a painting of Weir’s studio was placed in front of the studio itself.
A third design showed an artist in a short smock painting outside Weir’s studio.
The remaining two designs were variations of the portable easel holding a canvas with the artist’s painting of the Weir house and studio portrayed in greater detail than the rest of the design.
On all, the inscription “National Park for the Arts” was included.
Overlapping the towns of Ridgefield and Wilton, CT, the Weir Farm National Historic Site is located half way between Danbury and Norwalk, and near the New York State border.
