John Robertson Reid 1851-1926

Code: 320

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'Dividing the Catch, Talland Bay with Tor Point in the Distance' (between Looe and Fowey)

John Robertson Reid was a Scottish painter who spent his early working life in Surrey, and then from the early 1880s in Cornwall in the wild south-west of England. He became the president of the Society of British Artists in 1886 and the Society of Sculptors, Painters and Gravers in 1898. These posts gave him an entree into London society, and from the early1900's he made his home in London. In Reid's later years, the young Sir Winston Churchill used to paint outdoorsin the company of Reid. He trained under George Chalmers and William MacTaggart. His mature style was influenced by the move in painting towards rural Naturalism (Sir George Clauden) and the French Realists (Jules Bastien-Lepage) and also owes a little to Impressionism. He firstfound success with natural outdoors scenes of the Surrey countryside, and was notable at the time for painting his scenes entirely of locations, with the use of hired local people psing in the scenes. His sister, Lizzie Reid and Flora MacDonald Reid (1879-C. 1929), were also exhibiting artists. Reid was the great-uncle of Sir Norman Reid, Director of the Tate Gallery.

He exhibited 98 works at the Royal Academy, 68 at the Glasgow Institute, 39 at the Royal Scottish Academy and prolofically at many other major galleries throughout London and the Provinces. Represented at the Tate and V&A and at many major public galleries throughout the UK.

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