Although born in Islington of Scottish parentage, Reid trained with her older brother John Robertson Reid at his Edinburgh studio and at the Royal Scottish Academy, first exhibiting there professionally aged sixteen. Mainly resident in London from 1881, she travelled widely on the Continent and had an international exhibiting career. Bruges, with its famous and highly picturesque market, was a favourite subject which she revisited many times through the 1890s and early 1900s.