THOMAS FAED, ESQ., A.R.A.

AMONGST the figure painters of the present day, there is one before whose works everybody stands to gaze and admire, be he or she old or young, gentle or simple. This favoured and favourite artist, who has a charm for all eyes, and whose compositions go straight to every heart, is Mr. Faed. Who is there who is not familiar with the humour, grave or gay, with which his works abound? and what critical judgment does not acknowledge, with sincerity, that in his hands there is always an elevating tendency, that the jocular element is never tainted with vulgarity, and that the homely and domestic is not without its touch of the sublime?

Something more than taste, however, is necessary to the success of a leading painter; and Mr. Faed's career is no exception to the rule, that only by long and arduous study is eminence in the arts to be achieved. He was born at Burley Mill, in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, in the year 1826. His father, who was an engineer and millwright, died in the year 1844, and the subject of our memoir, thereupon, or shortly before, betook himself, at the suggestion of his elder brother, to the Scottish capital, where he ardently pursued the bent of his genius in the School of Design. Whilst there, he came under the notice and tuition of the celebrated Sir W. Allan, and his skill and industry were rewarded by numerous prizes in the annual competitions with his fellow pupils and scholars. It is related that his earliest exhibited work was a water-colour drawing from the "Old English Baron;" but he soon abandoned this branch of art, and took to the higher domain. of oil-painting, studying figures with unremitting assiduity.

In the year 1849, he was proficient enough to obtain the rank

of Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy. Among the works which he exhibited in Scotland, that which is best recollected is a group representing "Sir Walter Scott and his Friends at Abbotsford."

While still resident in Edinburgh, we find him, in the year 1850, exhibiting at the Royal Academy, with three works, "Cottage Piety," "Auld Robin Gray," and "The First Step;" but in the next or following year, as he rose rapidly in public estimation, and found his powers on the increase, he betook himself to London, and commenced a series of pictures which have been gradually but uninterruptedly successful. It is his good fortune to be the master of a class of subjects which are of all others most popular, and which, when multiplied by engraving, command an entrance to the hearths and homes of the million. Accordingly, not a work of social life or domestic incident makes its appearance, which is not at once submitted to the and so engraver, finds its way to circles which are perhaps closed to every other description of art production.

In 1852, a picture representing the "Visit of a Patron and Patroness to a Village School" excited some attention. In 1853 he painted "Evangeline," of all his small works perhaps the most successful. It has been twice engraved by his brother James, and four times in America. His "Sophia and Olivia," also exhibited in 1853, showed a good deal of experimental treatment in the lighting of the figures, but still was an advance; and a similar sparkling effect was attained in a subject called "Peggy," from Ramsay's 'Gentle Shepherd;' and also in Morning Reapers going out ;" these were both exhibited in 1854. In the following year, a still further progress in public esteem was achieved by the "Mitherless Bairn," where a simple tale is told in an obvious manner with much force and beauty. This has been engraved by Mr. Samuel Cousins, and is a great favourite; and it was this picture, perhaps, which first gave him an established position, and at once advanced him to the foremost ranks of the figure painters not members of the Academy. In 1856, the true scope and real extent of Mr. Faed's powers further revealed themselves in two capital productions. One of these was "Home and the Homeless," in which the contrast is presented between the interior of a thriving labourer's cottage, where the good man is coaxing his child with an apple, and the wan and ab

ject figure of a beggar-woman outside, whose hungry orphan child creeps up to the table. This picture is a companion to the " Mitherless Bairn," and it has been engraved by Henry Cousins. The other was 66 Highland Mary;" this ranks as one of Mr. Faed's most carefully-coloured and best finished works; it has been engraved by W. H. Simmons, and is universally known and admired.

Next year came the scene, well known from Mr. T. L. Atkinson's engraving, the "First Break in the Family." The mail coach in the distance is bearing off the boy, the pride of the cottage family, from the old and young folks, who watch its departure with varied emotions.

In 1858 Mr. Faed exhibited a picture, in which the humour of the artist came out more powerfully than hitherto-" A Listener ne'er hears gude o' himsel'." The listener, it will be remembered, had written to his sweetheart a letter, "saft, couthie, and slee," and was now on the point of paying her a visit with the "brawest cheap shawl" he could find. He creeps to the doorway, and the scene which meets his gaze is best described in the words of the poet Ballantine, who wrote them on first beholding the picture :

"There sat my braw Joe wi' young Colin Dalzell,
An' his glaiket sister, wha tongue's like a bell,

A gigglin, an' ettling my letter to spell-
A listener ne'er hears gude o' himsel."

In this picture Mr. Faed displayed a more vigorous execution than before, stronger colour, and above all, a keen dramatic zest, which infallibly asserted his artistic strength. This work has also been engraved by Mr. Atkinson. The "Ayrshire Lassie" (since engraved by C. Tomkins) appeared also in the same year,-a fainter revival of the "Highland Mary" of two years before.

Mr. Faed's picture in 1859 was "Sunday in the Backwoods," representing the devotions of Scotch emigrants in Canada under the roof of a grander kirk than any they had left behind themthe stems and vaults of the overarching forest. This work has been engraved by Mr. Simmons. The painter was more at home in the genial picture, entitled " My ain Fireside," since engraved by Mr. J. Stevenson.

In 1860, the only exhibited work was a rare bit of Scottish