Robert Reid (1865-1929) American, lived/active Massachusetts

Signed (l.l.): R. Reid

Oil on canvas

Condition: Few patches on back, minor restoration and in-painting. Canvas on original stretcher.

Provenance: By family descent, Peter Tillou, 1992.

Robert Reid, an American Impressionist artist, was best known for his female portraits and landscape views. Born in Stockbridge, MA, in 1862, he studied at the Boston Museum of Fine Arts School, the Art Students League in New York and at the Academie Julian in Paris with Gustave Boulanger and Jules Lefebreve.

Reid received the commission to decorate one of the eight pavilion domes at the entrance to the 1893 World’s Columbian exhibition, after which he received important mural commissions throughout his career, including the Fifth Avenue Hotel and the Imperial Hotel in New York. In 1897, Reid became one of the founding members of the Ten American Painters, a group of impressionists who rebelled against traditionalism. In the early 1920s, he taught at the Broadmoor Academy in Colorado Springs, during which time he focused more on portrait commissions.

Reid’s impressionist style is typified by his high-hues, values and little contrast of lights and dark. He exhibited at the Paris Salon, the 1893 Columbian Expo in Chicago, the Paris Expo, the Pan-American Expo and the St. Louis Expo. His work is included in the permanent collections of many institutions including the Detroit Institute of Arts. He was a member of the Society of American Artists and the National Academy of Design.