Asserting her place in a family of esteemed male artists (including John Ferguson Weir, her uncle and the first director of the Yale School of the Fine Arts), Irene Weir made arts education central to her life. Weir had already received artistic training and was midway through her tenure as the first director of the School of Design and Liberal Arts, in New York, when she joined the inaugural class of 1923 at the École des Beaux-Arts at Fontainebleau. Located outside Paris, Fontainebleau boasted a curriculum designed for advanced students. This watercolor was likely made during Weir’s visit to the historic commune of Chinon, a stop on the Fontainebleau students’ trips to the Loire Valley. Weir was enchanted by the everyday activities of the village. She viewed the produce market at a distance but observed the subjects of her figural studies, such as The Blacksmith (1931.102) and The Noon Hour (1931.103), so closely as to record facial features and details of clothing.