John Reed (art patron)

John Reed
Born	10 December 1901 Evandale, Australia
Died	5 December 1981
Occupation	Art editor and patron
Spouse(s)	Sunday Reed
Children	Sweeney Reed (adopted)

John Harford Reed (10 December 1901 – 5 December 1981) was an Australian art editor and patron, notable for supporting and collecting of Australian art and culture with his wife Sunday Reed.

Reed was born at 'Logan', near Evandale near Launceston, Tasmania, one of seven children. His youngest sister, Cynthia later married artist and printmaker Sidney Nolan. In 1911 the Reeds left Launceston for England to promote their children's education. When World War I broke out they returned to Tasmania to settle with John Reed's grandmother at Mount Pleasant, a mansion in Prospect, Tasmania. His grandfather was Henry Reed. He attended Geelong Grammar between 1915-1920, and subsequently studied law at Cambridge University.

After graduating he returned to Australia to practise law in Melbourne, where he met Sunday Baillieu. They married on 13 January 1932. In 1934 they purchased a former dairy farm on the Yarra River floodplain at Bulleen, a suburb of Melbourne, which became known as Heide. A number of modernist artists, known as the Heide Circle came to live and work at Heide at various times during the 1930s, '40s and '50s, and as such it became the place where many of the most famous works of the period were painted. Albert Tucker, Sidney Nolan, and Joy Hester, among others, all worked at Heide. Nolan painting his famous series of Ned Kelly works in the living room there.

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