Mary Hiester Reid

Mary Augusta Hiester Reid (1854–1921) was an American-born Canadian painter and teacher. She was best known as a painter of floral still lifes, and by 1890 she was thought to be the most important flower painter in Canada. She also painted domesticated landscapes, night scenes, and, less frequently, studio interiors and figure studies.[1] Her work as a painter is related in a broad sense to Tonalism and Aestheticism or "art for art's sake".[2]

Mary Hiester Reid
Mary Hiester Reid by George Agnew Reid, 1898
Born
Mary Augusta Catharine Hiester

(1854-04-10)April 10, 1854
Reading, Pennsylvania
DiedOctober 4, 1921(1921-10-04) (aged 67)
Toronto, Ontario, Canada
NationalityAmerican, Canadian
Education
  • Philadelphia School of Design
  • Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
  • Académie Colarossi
Known forPainting
Spouse(s)
​
(m. 1885)​

She was made a member of the Ontario Society of Artists in 1887, and in 1907 became only the second woman to serve on its executive committee.[1] She was also one of the first women to be elected an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) in 1893.[3] She was elected to join the Canadian Society of Applied Art in 1904.[1]

Biography

Reid was born in Reading, Pennsylvania on April 10, 1854.[1] From 1883 to 1885, Reid studied painting at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts with Thomas Eakins. In the Academy, she met her future husband Canadian artist George Agnew Reid (1860–1947). From 1888 to 1889, she studied at the Académie Colarossi in Paris, taking costume-study and life classes.[1] She studied there again in 1896.[1]

During the 19th and early 20th century, at the time of her schooling, women were rarely allowed to pursue art as a career. If they attended art school, they were often not taught the same material as men.[4] Although they both attended art school, Mary was restricted to traditionally feminine themes, and in turn became known for her flower paintings.[5][6] Despite the expectations for women to remain at home and care for children, Mary rose to prominence and became one of the first women to have her work included in the National Gallery of Canada.[6]

Reid exhibited her work at the Palace of Fine Arts at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois[7] and to the exhibitions of the OSA and the RCA, the Art Association of Montreal, the Women's Art Association of Canada, and the Canadian National Exhibition.[1] She also exhibited her work at the Pan-American exposition in Buffalo (1901), and the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St Louis (1904), with Mary Evelyn Wrinch at the galleries of the Art Metropole in Toronto (1912), and with her husband and Wrinch at the Royal Ontario Museum, in aid of the Red Cross Society (1915).[1] In addition to producing paintings that were widely admired, Mary became financially successful and received significant reviews in the Toronto press.[6] In 1893, she was elected an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts, one of the first women elected.[3]

Legacy

A retrospective show of Reid's work was held in 1922 at the Art Gallery of Toronto, following her death on October 4, 1921.[5] It included 308 works.[6] She was the first woman to posthumously receive a solo retrospective exhibition at that institution.[3] In 2000, Mary Hiester Reid's work was rediscovered (suggested CBC Radio, 21 June 2020) when the Art Gallery of Ontario held an exhibition of her work, Quiet Harmony: The Art of Mary Hiester Reid, curated by Brian Foss and Janice Anderson. A biography by Molly Peacock is planned for publication by ECW Press in 2021.[8]

See also
  • Mary Hiester Reid Chrysanthemums in a Qing Blue and White Vase, 1892
  • Mary Hiester Reid Interior with a Garden View, n.d
  • Mary Hiester Reid Roses in a Vase 1891

References
  1. Foss, Brian. "Mary Augusta Catharine Hiester Reid". www.biographi.ca. Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 15 University of Toronto/Université Laval 2005. Retrieved 2020-09-14.
  2. Foss, Brian (2010). Into the New Century: Painting, c.1880-1914, The Visual Arts in Canada: The Twentieth Century. Canada: Oxford. p. 24. Retrieved 2020-09-06.
  3. Terry, Andrea. "Art Canada Institute Mary Hiester Reid: Life & Work". Art Canada Institute. Retrieved 21 April 2020.
  4. The Pennsylvania Academy and its women
  5. Foss, Brian (2000). Quiet Harmony: The Art of Mary Hiester Reid. Toronto: Art Gallery of Ontario. pp. 21, 55. ISBN 1894243099.
  6. REID, Mary Heister; by Canadian Women Artists History Initiative; published 28 November 2013; retrieved 1 February 2014;
  7. Nichols, K. L. "Women's Art at the World's Columbian Fair & Exposition, Chicago 1893". Retrieved 24 July 2018.
  8. "'Remember me as an artist': The rediscovery of Canadian painter Mary Hiester Reid'". www.cbc.ca. Canadian Broadcasting Company. Retrieved 2020-09-14.

Bibliography
  • The Pennsylvania Academy and its women, 1850–1920: May 3 – June 16, 1974 Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (exhibition catalogue). Philadelphia, PA: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 1974.
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