Flora MacDonald REID

Miss Flora MacDonald REID
1861
1945
c exh 1880-1938

A Scottish artist, the younger sister and pupil of John Robertson REID, she was born in Islington, London, but was brought up in Edinburgh, where she began exhibiting at the age of 16. She exhibited three paintings at the Whitechapel Exhibition of 1902 for artists associated with West Cornwall. Her titles included Charity (for the Sick and Needy) and The Widow. That year, both she and J R Reid lived at Park Hill Rd, Haverstock Hill, London, where they both were actively exhibiting at many shows. 

She spent many years in France, Norway, and Belgium, and lived for 10 years in Looe, Cornwall. Flora and her brother John always shared the same exhibiting address, which from 1904-1906 was 'Osprey Cottage' in Polperro. Between 1881 and 1932 she exhibited more than 80 pictures at the Royal Academy. Her works typically depict the daily life of working people, often with a religious touch.

In 1939 she was living in Hampstead, and she died in 1945 in Barnstaple.

media

Painter of genre subjects

works and access

Works include: Charity (for the Sick and Needy) and The Widow (both 1902); First CommunionWild Flowers; A Cornish Fishwife (1904)

Access to Work: Leeds; Liverpool; Manchester; Rochdale

exhibitions

RA (80); RBA; OP; N; L; M; GI and others

references

Census 1891

Hardie (2009) Artists in Newlyn and West Cornwall

Johnson & Greutzner

Tovey, David (2021) Polperro - Cornwall's Forgotten Art Centre - Volume One - Pre-1920, Wilson Books

Whitechapel Exhibition catalogue

C Wood Victorian Painters

The Year's Art (photo)