George Reid is best known for his portraits, Once he moved to Edinburgh in the early 1870’s.Reid yearned to paint more landscapes as his career and success drove him to concentrate on portraiture. This study of Sunflower is a rare depiction found in his collection of paintings.

George Reid, 1841-1913

Sir George Reid was born in Aberdeen and worked first as a lithographer before moving to Edinburgh in 1862 to study at the Trustees' Academy. In 1866, supported by the Aberdeen collector, John Forbes White, he went to Holland to study under the landscape and genre painter, Gerrit Mollinger. He returned to Scotland in 1869, producing landscapes and portraits influenced by both Dutch and French contemporary painting. He was elected President of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1891 and knighted in 1902. After his death, his body was returned to Aberdeen, where he is buried with his parents in St Peter's Cemetery in the north of the city.