Nano Reid

Nano Reid (1 March 1900 – 17 November 1981) was an Irish painter who specialised in landscape, figure painting and portraits.

Early life and education

Nano Reid was born Anne Margaret Reid on 1 March 1900, in Drogheda, County Louth. She was the eldest of four children of Thomas Reid, publican, and Anne Reid (née Downey). The family home was above their pub in Drogheda, with the family also owning a number of properties in the town and in Dublin. Reid attended school at the Siena Convent, where in addition to being a talented pianist, her skills as a painter developed. Upon leaving school she initially enrolled to train as a nurse at the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital, but left after two months. Her parents were persuaded by their parish priest, Fr Segrave, to allow Nano Reid to attend the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin. Whilst there she studied under Seán Keating, Harry Clarke, Patrick Tuohy and Leo Whelan. Nano Reid taught at her old school and a boys' school in Drogheda in 1923. She exhibited for the first time at the Royal Hibernian Academy (RHA) in 1925 with three illustrations of poems. Nano Reid exhibited with the RHA periodically until 1968, though never became an academic member.

In 1927, as was common with other Irish painters of the time, Nano Reid went to Paris. Whilst there, she attended to the Académie de la Grande Chaumière for a few months, but the experience doesn't appear to have had an influence on her painting style. She then went to London to attend the Chelsea Polytechnic from 1929 to 1930, which she did not enjoy and after that remained in Ireland.

Work in collections

Crawford Art Gallery, Cork Highlanes Gallery, Drogheda Hugh Lane Gallery, Dublin Trinity College Dublin The Arts Council of Ireland including Cave of the Firbola Wreckage No.1 Santa Barbara Museum California Irish Institute, New York University of Limerick, IACI O'Malley Collection (1) Donkeys on the Aran Shore, (2) Valley Desmond, Gaugan Barra

Quotes

A born artist and a born stylist...This young artist from Drogheda has to be saluted as a genius. Thomas MacGreevy, The Irish Times, 27 November 1942, p. 3 link One can say, without pretension, that she has her place in European painting. Patrick Swift, Envoy, March 1950 (read article). Reid painted Swift's portrait that year. For my money the best Irish painter, mo cheol thú, a Nano. Pearse Hutchinson, The Irish Imagination 1959–1971 (1971)