Background
Robert Reid was born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts and attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston under Otto Grundmann, where he was also later an instructor.
In 1884 he moved to New York City to study at the Art Students League.
Robert Reid was born in Stockbridge, Massachusetts and attended the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston under Otto Grundmann, where he was also later an instructor.
Studied Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1880 (3 years assistant instructor same), Art Students’ League, New York, 1885-1889, Academie Julian, under Boulanger and Lefebvre.
In 1884 he moved to New York City, studying at the Art Students League, and in 1885 he went to Paris to study at the Académie Julian under Gustave Boulanger and Jules Joseph Lefebvre. His early pictures were figures of French peasants, painted at Étaples. Upon returning to New York in 1889, he worked as a portraitist and later became an instructor at the Art Students League and Cooper Union.
Much of his work centered on the depiction of young women set among flowers.
His work tended to be very decorative, and he became known for mural decoration and designs for stained glass. He contributed with others to the frescoes of the dome of the Liberal Arts Building at the Columbian Exposition, Chicago, in 1893.
Around the turn of the century, Reid worked on several mural projects and when he returned to paintings, around 1905, his work was more naturalistic, even though his palette trended toward soft pastels. He has work in the Library of Congress, Washington, District of Columbia, the Appellate Court House, New York, and the State House, Boston, where are his three large panels, “James Otis Delivering his Speech against the Writs of Assistance,” “Paul Revere"s Ride” and the “Boston Tea Party.” He executed a panel for the American Pavilion at the Paris Exhibition, 1900, and in 1906 he completed a series of ten stained glass windows for the Unitarian Memorial Church at Fairhaven, Massachusetts
Reid"s “The Martyrdom of Saint Paul” is located at the southwestern end of the nave of the Church of Saint Paul the Apostle in New York City.
Robert Reid"s murals for the Palace of Fine Arts building at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition (San Francisco, 1915) were an extraordinary tribute to the Arts. Eight huge panels graced the ceiling of the rotunda: The Four Golds of California (Golden Metal, Wheat, Citrus Fruits, and Poppies). Plus Ideals in Art, Inspirations of All Arts, the Birth of European Art and Birth of Oriental Art These paintings no longer exist in San Francisco"s Palace of Fine Arts, which was re-built in the 1960s.
Their current whereabouts is unknown.
He died in Clifton Springs, New New York
Reflections
Breezy Day
The Pearl Fan
Pyryne
The Furs
The Garden Seat
The Miniature
Hillside in Summer
Springtime Stroll
Morning Reflections
The Yellow Flower
Out of My Window
A Summer Girl
The White Parasol
Against the Sky
In the Garden
On the Terrace
Cascading Brook
Paisley Shawl
The Pink Cape
Spring's Palette
View from a Mountaintop
Autumn Landscape
Two Women Reading
Azaleas
The Violet Kimono
Lady in Blue
Summer Reverie
The Mirror
Pond in Early Autumn
Tempting Sweets
The Bathers
People Sketching by the Shore
The Brook
A Summer Portrait
Girl with Flowers
The Bather
Portrait of a Young Girl
Portrait of a Young Women in Garden
Autumn
Her First Born
Spring Bouquet
Lush Spring
Young Girl with Dolls
The Old Gardener
Three Figures in an Italian Garden
Spirit of the Garden
Fleur-De-LIs
A Woodland Stream
Spring
Stony Pasture
Tending the Garden
Study for 'Polly'
Landscape with Stream
Breezy Day
Boy with Red Peonies
Portrait of a Boy
By the Brook
Portrait of the Artist's Wife
Pond Lilies
Girl at the Window
Reverie
Autumn Sunlight
Reminiscing
Circe and Anatol
Daphne
Autumn Landscape
Summer Breeze
Lady with a Parasol
Woman on a Porch with Flowers
Buttermilk Falls
Landscape with Waterfall
In the Flower Garden
The Trio
Spring
Springtime
Girl in Blue Kimono
Meadow with Brook, Medfield, Massachusetts
Blue and Yellow
Man in the Moon
Opal
Enigma
Ten American Painters]
In 1897, Reid was a member of the Ten American Painters, who seceded from the Society of American Artists. In 1906 he became a full member of the National Academy of Design.
Married Elizabeth Reeves, April.