Virginia Richmond Reynolds

Virginia Richmond Reynolds (1866 – 1903) was an American artist particularly known for her portrait miniatures. She was also an influential teacher of the genre.

Early life and education

Reynolds was born in Chicago, and studied first at the Art Institute of Chicago and then in Munich with Carl Marr. While in Munich she married Wellington Jarard Reynolds who was also an art student there. The couple moved to Paris where Virginia continued her studies under the American impressionist painter Charles Augustus Lasar and began exhibiting her work.

Reynolds was one of the founding members of the American Society of Miniature Painters in 1899 and periodically returned to Chicago where she had a studio and taught the first course in miniature painting at the Art Institute of Chicago. She died at the age of 37 from an embolism while on vacation with her family in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin. After her death, her husband remained in Chicago, teaching at the Art Institute and continuing his career as a painter. He died there in 1949.