Born near Wingham, Reid became a successful genre painter and muralist who believed art to be an integral part of the human environment. He was active in organizing support organizations to promote various applications of art and served as president of both the Ontario Society of Artists (1897-1901) and the Royal Canadian Academy of Art (1906-09). In 1912 he became principal of the Ontario College of Art, a position he held for seventeen years. In the latter part of his career he painted many murals, notably that done for the Palaeontology Galleries of the Royal Ontario Museum. He died at Toronto.