Sir George Reid P.R.S.A. (1841 - 1913)

RA Collection: People and Organisations

Reid worked as a lithographer before moving to Edinburgh in 1862 where he attended the Trustees’ Academy. The art collector John Forbes White provided him with a bursary which enabled him to travel to Utrecht where he studied under the landscape and genre painter, Gerrit Mollinger. He exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy, and became an honorary member after his appointment as its president, which earned him a knighthood. He also exhibited at the Royal Scottish Society of Painters in Watercolours, of which he was an honorary member, at the Royal Hibernian Academy, and at the Royal Academy, London, from 1865 onward. He illustrated many books, notably The Life of a Scottish Naturalist.