Robert Lewis Reid (July 29, 1862 – December 2, 1929) was an American Impressionist painter and muralist. His work tended to be very decorative, much of it centered on depiction of young women set among flowers. He later became known for his murals and designs in stained glass.
He painted three murals for the Manufactures Building at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, and exhibited four paintings in its Fine Arts Building. His work, including the tragic Her First Born (1888), was awarded a medal for excellence.[2]
From 1898 to 1899 Robert Reid's work, his impressionist nude Opal, was picked and exhibited by the Western Art Association Academy. This was for a wider exhibition of the Trans Mississippi art collection, his work was shown at the Omaha Public Library.[3]
Reid worked on several mural projects around the turn of the century. When he returned to paintings, around 1905, his work was more naturalistic, and his palette tended toward soft pastels.
Reid's murals are in the Library of CongressinWashington, D.C., and the Appellate Court House in New York City. The Rotunda of the Massachusetts State House in Boston contains his three large mural panels—James Otis Delivering his Speech against the Writs of Assistance, Paul Revere's Ride, and The Boston Tea Party. He executed a mural panel for the American Pavilion at the 1900 Exposition Universelle in Paris.
His 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.[4] These paintings no longer exist in San Francisco's Palace of Fine Arts, which was re-built in the 1960s, and their current whereabouts are unknown.
"Chicagoans knew Reid as the artist who painted a mammoth Navy recruiting poster that embellished the billboard at the northern terminus of Michigan Avenue for several months" (before 1918).[5]
^Katz, Wendy, ed. (2018). The Trans-Mississippi and International Expositions of 1898–1899. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN9780803278806.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: date and year (link)
Katz, Wendy, ed. (2018). The Trans-Mississippi and International Expositions of 1898–1899. Lincoln, Nebraska: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN9780803278806.
