xt7qjq0stw34_5360 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7qjq0stw34/data/mets.xml https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7qjq0stw34/data/1997ms474.dao.xml unknown archival material 1997ms474 English University of Kentucky The physical rights to the materials in this collection are held by the University of Kentucky Special Collections Research Center.  Contact the Special Collections Research Center for information regarding rights and use of this collection. W. Hugh Peal manuscript collection Thomas Faed letters and envelope, with clipping text 43.94 Cubic Feet 86 boxes, 4 oversize boxes, 22 items Poor-Good Peal accession no. 11453. Thomas Faed letters and envelope, with clipping 2017 https://exploreuk.uky.edu/dips/xt7qjq0stw34/data/1997ms474/Box_62/Folder_27/Multipage28399.pdf [1870]-1875, undated 1875 [1870]-1875, undated section false xt7qjq0stw34_5360 xt7qjq0stw34   

  

  

  

 THOMASFAED, RA. 1/3 5/ m ”7/

IT is to Mr. Faed’s infinite honour that he has worked his way upwards from that
self-respecting, resolute, and energetic race of men, the Scotch artisans. Born at
Burley Mill, in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, in 1826, Mr. Faed is the son of
an engineer and wheelwright, who (lied when the artist was only a boy. Both
his brother and himself showed an early taste for painting. John Faed, the elder
of the two, started as a miniature painter, and at twenty-one pushing on boldly
for Edinburgh, began exhibiting pictures of rustic life, which soon became
popular. Thomas Faed soon followed his brother’s steps, and entered himself
in “Modern Athens,” at the School of Design, then under the management of
the celebrated Sir William Allan, an artist of some invention, but little technical
skill, and far too much praised by Lockhart and others of the Blaz/awoazl set.
Emulous to rival his brother’s Caller’r Samnlay Mg'lzt, Tam o’S/zmzlcr, and the
Soldier’s Rclzmz, the younger aspirant toiled sedulously at the antique, anatomy,
and academic drawing, though from the first displaying more excellence in
colour than outline. Gradually maturing his powers, Mr. Faed at last ventured
to exhibit—and a drawing in water colours, from that somewhat vague romance
“The Old English Baron,” was his first effort to win the laurels. Soon, however,
taking to oinaintin g, he painted several pictures of Di'azzg/zlPlafl/‘s, S/zq/J/zer/lBoyr,
&c., feeling his way with sensible humility and national caution to larger groups
and more ambitious compositions. Becoming an Associate of the Royal Scot-
tish Academy in 1849, the artist’s ambition rapidly developed, and he produced
a picture of Swil and My E'z’mrls at Abbaz‘rfowl, an interesting collection of the
portraits of the great novelist and those cronies of his whom Lockhart’s biography
of his father-in—law has made so familiar to us. This picture appealed to the
national heart, and the engraving of it had a wide sale, spreading the artist’s
name from John 0’ Groat’s to Berwick. The Scottish school had hitherto followed
almost slavishly in the steps of Wilkie, and had imitated even his defects. 7716
Kent Day, and 7/15 Bllml E'zlrllei’ were indeed pictures far eclipsing
anything Teniers or Ostade had produced, and displayed the humour,
though not the pathos, of Hogarth’s finest productions. But Mr. Faed,
energetic and restless, saw that there were countless paths in Scottish
life that Wilkie had never trod, and he girded his loins and sallied forth
in search of them. In 1855 2716 Alli/Miler: Balm was one of the great pictures
of the year’s Academy—excellent in subject, clever and strong in character, rich
in colour, and exquisite in finish. Its chief defects were the somewhat enamelled
polish of its surface, and here and there deficiencies in drawing. In 1856, Mr.
Faed exhibited his Home and My Hamclms, another success. In 1857, T/ze Fz'rrz‘
Buzz/z 2'71 #55 Family was equally popular, as depicting the great sorrow suggested
by the title. Mr. Faed’s Sunday in 1/15 Butlers/gods, a Canadian scene, was a very
beautiful glimpse of a family of Scotch emigrants, not yet settled down in their
new home, and with their thoughts turning to dear old Scotland. In others
of Mr. Faed’s pictures, such as szmn MT arm's/1, the subject of our
illustration, [fir Only Pair, and From Dawn lo Sunset, the artist has
given us many types of Scotch character, chiefly delighting in “ sonsy,”
blooming girlhood, which he is yet fond of contrasting with old age and
childhood. Without Mulready’s exquisite power of expressing character,
and with far inferior manipulative skill, Mr. Faed has still produced some pictures
full of pathos and true unaffected natural feeling. Without Collins’s iza'z'mlé, or
Webster’s delightful simplicity, Mr. Faed has given promise of even greater works
than he has yet produced. He is essentially a realistic painter, like Wilkie, but
his mind is of a more serious cast. He does not often aim at humour.
No one can paint a cottage interior better, or people it with more natural or
picturesque figures, elevated by a certain poetry. His pictures are never slovenly
or inharmonious, though they do not read the microscopic truth that is so dear
to the pre—Raphaelite. Aiming at broad effects, Mr. Faed would not care to
overcome the difficulties in which Mr. Hunt delights.

We must warn Mr. Faed, however, against one fault too prevalent among
successful artists, and that is, the imitation of himself. He must strike out boldly
to fresh discoveries, or we shall even tire of the ever buxom Scotch lass and the
old grandmother tatooed with wrinkles. There are many green valleys in the
Lowlands still to explore, where scenes of rural life hitherto unattempted by the
artist might be found. There are Orkney cabins and Cromarty firesides, to
furnish many novelties for the painter, and Mr. Faed’s keen eye would soon
discover fresh types of national character in the wild hovels on the Scotch
coast. He must make forays of this kind, and the result will be a widening of
his powers, and a fresh region opened for Scotch art.