Background
Reed, Luman was born on June 4, 1787 in Austerlitz, New York, United States. Son of Eliakim and Rebecca (Fitch) Reed.
Reed, Luman was born on June 4, 1787 in Austerlitz, New York, United States. Son of Eliakim and Rebecca (Fitch) Reed.
His support for the painters George Whiting Flagg and Thomas Cole were particularly significant contributions to the development of American painting during the early 19th century. He also commissioned works from artists such as Asher B. Durand. He began his business career as a store clerk in the Hudson River village of Coxsackie, New York, where his family relocated (c 1789) before moving to New York City in 1815.
With his wealth, Reed assembled in the course of six years one of the earliest and most significant collections of European and American art in the United States, which he displayed in a specially designed two-room gallery in his house on Greenwich Street in lower Manhattan.
His interest in landscape painting and portraiture notwithstanding, Reed was also an avid collector of genre paintings depicting scenes from everyday life. In 1844, his substantial collection was purchased by a group of his associates in New York with the intention to form a public art collection, later the New York Gallery of Fine Arts.
The collection was later donated to the New York Historical Society in 1858. lieutenant is one of the most important early 19th-century collections of American art that survives intact.
Member Sketch.
Married Mary Baker, 3 children.