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37. *Nano Reid (1900-1981)
Tommy Wallace
Oil on canvas laid on board, 40.6 x 30.5cm
Signed
Exhibited:“Nano Reid Retrospective” Exhibition, Hugh Lane Gallery and Ulster Museum 1976,
Cat. No.1
On seeing this work much later in her life the artist commented “that she was trying to depict
the hunger and depression in the young lad and the hopeless prospects that the future held out
for him”. She went on to say “Mrs McCullen, I never realised I painted as well as that!”
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Born in Drogheda Co. Louth, Nano Reid trained at the Metropolitan School of Art in Dublin,
where she studied under Sean Keating and Harry Clarke. Afterwards she travelled to Paris, en-
rolling at the Académie de la Grande Chaumiére along with other Irish artists such as Kathleen
Fox. Reid then attended the Central School in London, studying under Bernard Meninsky. Her
first solo exhibition was held at the Dublin Painters Gallery in 1934. After returning to Ireland,
Reid spent the rest of her life in Drogheda, concentrating on painting aspects of local life and
landscapes. However, her paintings are in no way bound by a sense of locality, but are accom-
plished essays in painterly abstraction.
By 1942, she had established a reputation for her richness of invention, with economy of means,
and her watercolour landscapes were compared to those of Raol Dufy. She exhibited at the
RHA during the 1930s; but, from 1943, generally exhibited with the IELA, the Dublin Painters
and later with the Independent Artists. She represented Ireland with Norah McGuinness at the
Venice Biennale in 1950.
Fig. 18. Nano Reid
