Having studied at the Boston Museum School and the Art Students League in New York, Reid continued his studies in Paris in 1885. By the 1890s, the artist returned to New York where his style transitioned from academic naturalism to impressionism. His new subjects, women in outdoor settings, reveal that more and more, the artist was painting en plein air. The artist painted at the Cos Cob art colony with John H. Twachtman and was a member of the Ten American Painters group.