Artists at the Sea

Provenance

Fred and Phyllis Pressman, New York, New York
Estate of Phyllis Pressman, from above
Sale, Freeman’s, Philadelphia, December 7, 2025, lot 67, from above
Private collection, New York, New York, from above, 2025

Related Works

Summer Breezes, ca. 1910–1920, oil on canvas, 25 x 30 inches, signed lower left: R. Reid; Reading Public Museum, Pennsylvania

Springtime, 1899, oil on canvas, 30 ⅛ x 27 ⅝ inches, signed lower right: Robert Reid; New Britain Museum of American Art, Connecticut

Note

Robert Reid was a founding member of The Ten—a society of mostly Boston painters who, from the 1890’s until the First World War, emphasized elegant figures, classic interiors, and picturesque parks in their subject matter. Like his contemporary, William Merritt Chase, Reid supplemented his commissioned work, predominantly portraiture, with instruction for a new class of independent women artists. Around 1910, Reid taught summer classes in Cos Cob, Connecticut, when he created this work. Reid himself is likely the man at the easel in the center, while Long Island Sound is featured in the distance.

Fred Pressman (1923–1996) and his wife Phyllis (1928–2024) were active collectors in New York City in the 1980s and 90s. During those years, their family department store, Barney’s, named after Fred Pressman’s father, was the center of modern fashion and taste.