Thomas Faed ARSA RA

This is an early preparatory work for the oil painting From Dawn till Sunset. It was exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1861 (no.247) with a line from Tennyson's Circumstance: “So runs the round of life from hour to hour".

As the son of a prosperous mill owner in Galloway, Thomas and the Faed family did not face poverty at close quarters. The rural community in which he was raised, however, provided ample opportunity for Faed to experience the strenuous reality of rural living and the plight of the poor. Soon after graduating from the Trustees Academy in Edinburgh, Faed shifted the focus of his work away from historical illustrations of Burns and Scott to scenes with which he had a familiarity, and his subsequent paintings of orphans, beggars and street vendors were immensely popular. These works - genre paintings of more humble, anonymous, domestic drama - gave prominence to social issues and the day-to-day existence of many Scots.

He exhibited from 1844 in Edinburgh and in 1851 at the Royal Academy. In 1852, Faed settled in London, his first great success being The Mitherless Bairn, which was first shown at the RSA in 1855. Faed’s carefully composed and finely painted scenes from Scottish life appealed to the Victorian public, and while he played upon their emotions, he never degenerated into pure sentimentalism. Technically, Faed was expert; his handling of oil in interiors, figures, still life details and landscapes, and his sense of colour and composition rarely failed him. He managed to relate his subjects to the public, telling students at London Art School to ‘paint the gutter children of London rather than Helen of Troy, Agamemnon, or Achilles.’

Encyclopedia Americana of 1886 wrote of Faed; 'It has been truly said that Thomas Faed has done for Scottish art what Robert Burns did for Scottish song. He has made it attract universal interest and command universal respect.' (Mary McKerrow, The Faeds, A Biography, 1982, p.108). The 1860s and 70s were Thomas Faed's most productive years. In 1860 Agnew's mounted an exhibition of 9 of his works. Such an exhibition was then an unusual tribute to be paid to a living artist.