Article

George Agnew Reid

Published Online May 25, 2008

Last Edited March 4, 2015

George Agnew Reid, painter (b at Wingham, Canada W 25 Jul 1860; d at Toronto 23 Aug 1947). Reid brought Parisian Academy precision to emotional genre paintings of his own Ontario country people. Trained at the Central Ontario

George Agnew Reid

 George Agnew Reid, painter (b at Wingham, Canada W 25 Jul 1860; d at Toronto 23 Aug 1947). Reid brought Parisian Academy precision to emotional genre paintings of his own Ontario country people. Trained at the Central Ontario School of Art, Toronto (1879), the Pennsylvania Academy (1883), and the Julian and Colarossi academies, Paris, and the Prado, Madrid (1888-89), Reid turned from portraiture to genre, as in The Foreclosure of the Mortgage (1893), making his name with these successful narrative pictures. He was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts in 1889, and was principal of the Central Ontario School of Art and Design (later Ontario College of Art and Design) 1912-18. He also did murals and private and public commissions, including Toronto City Hall.