Mary Hiester Reid

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

(1854-04-10)April 10, 1854
DiedOctober 4, 1921(1921-10-04) (aged 67)
Education
  • Philadelphia School of Design
  • Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts
  • Académie Colarossi
Known forPainter
Spouse
(m. 1885)

Mary Augusta Hiester Reid who signed her name M. H. Reid (10 April 1854 – 4 October 1921) was an American-born Canadian painter and teacher. She was best known as a painter of floral still lifes, some of them called "devastatingly expressive" by a contemporary author, 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. Her work as a painter is related in a broad sense to Tonalism and Aestheticism or "art for art's sake".

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. She was also one of the first women to be elected an Associate of the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts (RCA) in 1893. She was elected to join the Canadian Society of Applied Art in 1904.