[1] He developed an early passion for drawing, which led to his being apprenticed in 1854 for seven years to Messrs Keith & Gibb, lithographers in Aberdeen.

In 1861 Reid took lessons from an itinerant portrait-painter, William Niddrie, who had been a pupil of James Giles, R.S.A.,[2] and afterwards entered as a student in the school of the board of trustees in Edinburgh.

His first portrait to attract attention, from its fine quality, was that of George Macdonald, the poet and novelist (now the property of the University of Aberdeen).

This change in his method of viewing nature was looked on as revolutionary by the Royal Scottish Academy, and for some years his work found little favour in that quarter; but other artists gradually adopted the system of tone-studies which ultimately prevailed.

Elected Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1870, Reid attained full membership in 1877, and took up his residence in Edinburgh at 17 Carlton Terrace on Calton Hill,[4] in 1882.