Robert Lewis Reid (1862-1929)
Robert Reid, of New York; Muralist, Artist & Stained Glass Artist
He was born at Stockbridge, Massachusetts. His paternal grandmother helped found the first female anti-slavery society in North America. Reid studied under Otto Grundmann at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. In 1884, he continued his studies at the Art Students League in New York City and in the following year he went to Paris and studied under under Boulanger and Lefebvret at the Académie Julian under Gustave Boulanger and Jules Joseph Lefebvre. He returned to New York in 1889 working as a portraitist and an instructor at the Art Students League and the Cooper Union. He painted three murals for the Manufacturer's Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago winning a medal for excellence. He was a member of the Ten American Painters who seceded from the Society of American Artists. In 1898, he was awarded the First Hallgarten Prize by the National Academy of Design.
He worked on several mural projects at: the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; the Appellate Court House, New York; Imperial Hotel, N.Y.; and, the Fifth Avenue Hotel, N.Y., one of which was resurrected at 477 Madison Avenue for Mrs Alva Vanderbilt Belmont. The Rotunda of the Massachusetts State House at Boston contains three of his large mural panels. He executed a mural panel at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris and his eight murals for the Palace of Fine Arts building at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition (San Francisco, 1915) were an extraordinary tribute to the Arts, but have since been lost. He returned to painting after 1905, turning to more naturalistic scenes and soft pastels. From 1906, he completed several stained glass windows in Massachusetts and New York. He was an Associate Member (1904) and then an Academician (1906) of the National Academy of Design. He died at Clifton Springs, New York, unmarried.
He worked on several mural projects at: the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.; the Appellate Court House, New York; Imperial Hotel, N.Y.; and, the Fifth Avenue Hotel, N.Y., one of which was resurrected at 477 Madison Avenue for Mrs Alva Vanderbilt Belmont. The Rotunda of the Massachusetts State House at Boston contains three of his large mural panels. He executed a mural panel at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris and his eight murals for the Palace of Fine Arts building at the Panama–Pacific International Exposition (San Francisco, 1915) were an extraordinary tribute to the Arts, but have since been lost. He returned to painting after 1905, turning to more naturalistic scenes and soft pastels. From 1906, he completed several stained glass windows in Massachusetts and New York. He was an Associate Member (1904) and then an Academician (1906) of the National Academy of Design. He died at Clifton Springs, New York, unmarried.
