Brushstrokes and Bequeathments: The Extraordinary Life of Mary Hiester Reid
This botanical history post was featured on The Daily Gardener podcast:
October 24, 1854
On this day in 1854, the extraordinary floral still-life painter Mary Hiester Reid entered the world—a woman whose brushstrokes captured nature's fleeting beauty with such exquisite delicacy that one might almost detect the perfume of her painted blooms wafting from the canvas.
Born in Pennsylvania, our talented Miss Hiester encountered the younger George Reid (a man six years her junior, I might add) at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts during their sketching excursions. George later confessed—with what one imagines was a wistful sigh—that these outings served not only art but afforded him precious moments with "the beautiful Mary Hiester on their expeditions." How convenient that artistic pursuits so often align with matters of the heart!
Their artistic collaboration blossomed when Mary boldly invited George to accompany her home for a weekend of sketching along the Schuylkill River. One can only imagine the raised eyebrows among the proper society matrons! Nevertheless, their artistic and romantic fates were sealed when they wed in 1885.
The Reids, like migratory birds with exceptional taste, spent every summer from 1891 to 1916 at Onteora, a private artistic sanctuary nestled in the Catskill Mountains. Their idyllic retreat—both house and studio designed by George on arts and crafts principles—accommodated ten fortunate students, some traveling from as far as Toronto to study under their tutelage. How delightful to combine one's passion with such splendid surroundings!
Though "a self-adopted Canadian who loved Canada," Mary possessed that rare quality among artists—humility. In 1910, a reviewer in The Globe observed:
"Nothing can tempt her to talk about her pictures."
Mary distinguished herself as one of the first women accepted into the Ontario Society of Artists and the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts—achievements that surely caused considerable consternation among certain gentlemen who believed the fairer sex incapable of artistic mastery.
Her painting, Hollyhocks—with its vibrant spires reaching heavenward—stands as a testament to her exceptional talent for capturing flora's magnificence. One can practically feel the summer breeze rustling through those stately blooms!
By the time death claimed her, Reid had established herself as Canada's preeminent female artist. She was celebrated for her:
"study and interpretation of Nature in those aspects that appealed most to her...glimpses of spring and autumn woodland, moonlit vistas, gorgeously colorful gardens, lovely skies, divinely tinted ends of evening, and the countless flowers of the fields…."
In 1922, a year after her departure from this earthly garden, Reid became the first woman to be honored with a solo exhibition at the Art Gallery of Toronto. How fitting that even in death, she continued to shatter the glass ceilings that had attempted to contain her talent!
And now, dear readers, I share with you the most delicious morsel of all—Mary Hiester Reid, in her final act of unexpected audacity, willed her husband to her friend and artistic rival, Mary Evelyn Wrinch, a painter and printmaker twenty-four years her junior!
One can only imagine the whispered conversations behind closed doors when that testament was read. Perhaps she understood that George, like a prized specimen in a botanical collection, required continued care and appreciation after her departure. Or perhaps this arrangement had been cultivated with the same careful attention she devoted to her floral compositions. Whatever the motivation, it certainly provides a fascinating postscript to an already remarkable life.
