Artist traded a painting and $10 for 153-acre farm; land later became protected

A painting that once cost American artist Julian Alden Weir $560 ended up helping him acquire something far more lasting, a 153-acre farm in Connecticut.In July 1882, Weir exchanged the painting and $10 for the Branchville property, a deal that would shape much of the rest of his artistic life. He went on to make the farm his primary residence for the next 36 years, building a studio there and using its fields, woods and rocky landscape as subjects for his work.More than a century later, the property became part of Weir Farm National Historical Park, preserving the home, studio and landscape where Weir and other artists worked.