Born into a family of musicians, and trained as a pianist, Reynard early turned to visual art, studying in evening classes at the school of the Art Institute of Chicago, 1906-07.
In 1913 he became art director of Red Book and soon after began executing illustrations for the magazine; through the 1920s he was contributing illustrations to that magazine as well as Colliers and the Saturday Evening Post. It was in this period he came to Leonia, New Jersey, to expand his artistic training by study with Charles Chapman, Harvey Dunn, Mahonri Young and Harry Wickey. He maintained a studio in Leonia for most of his life.
Beginning in 1926 he spent twelve summers as a fellow of the MacDowell colony in Peterborough, New Hampshire.
Although worked extensively in etching and lithography, and it was as a graphic artist that Reynard was elected an Associate of the Academy, he was equally well-known as a painter in both oil and watercolor media. Reynard taught at the Grand Central School of Art in New York, and headed the art department of the Millbrook School, ***, New Jersey, for a number of years, and in 1941, he joined Chapman teaching in the summer session of the University of Wyoming. In 1946 upon joining the lecture bureau of the Association of American Arts Program, he launched an intensive period of lecturing and teaching painting that took him to schools throughout the country. In another sphere of artistic endeavor Reynard served as chairman of the art committee of the Montclair (New Jersey) Art Museum from 1950 to 1955, when he became the Museum's president, a post he held for a decade.
