Project Description
Overview and What to Expect
Sam Weir was born in London, Ontario in 1898. He attended Osgoode Hall Law School in Toronto and was called to the Bar of Ontario in 1920. Over the years his law practice handled a variety of legal matters, including mortgages, life insurance and property development. He was made a King’s Counsel in 1936, elected a bencher of the Law Society of Upper Canada in 1950, and became a Life Bencher in 1965. Weir retired from active law practice in 1970.
Weir’s interest in fine art began with the purchase of a watercolour by English artist Dame Laura Knight in the early 1920s. Not long afterward, he encountered a painting by Homer Watson and purchased The Lothian Hills (1892) directly from the artist in installments, a practice he would follow in many transactions. Despite numerous subsequent acquisitions, the oil painting by Watson remained a life-long favorite. Sam Weir died in 1981, leaving his collection and estate to the Weir Foundation, incorporated in 1962.
