Thomas Faed, R.A

Samuel Hammond Esq., Leeds;
Private Collection

London, Royal Academy, 1853, no. 488;
Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Academy, 1854, no. 269

The canvas has been lined. On close inspection there is some evidence of craquelure and some old paint separation in some areas. There is a suggestion of some minor old restoration in the lower right section. Otherwise in good condition. Ultraviolet light reveals some cosmetic retouching and infilling to the left figure's face and neck and around the right figure's hat, face and neck. There is scattered retouching to the lower section, particularly to the sitter's dresses and to the foreground. There are some very light spots of retouching in the sky area and elsewhere. Otherwise in good condition. Held in a ornately decorated gold painted frame in fair condition.
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NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF BUSINESS PRINTED IN THE SALE CATALOGUE."

The subject of this painting is derived from the Irish novelist Oliver Goldsmith's The Vicar of Wakefield, one of his most enduring works, briefly mentioned in Jane Austen's Emma, Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities and in Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's two works The Sorrows of Young Werther and Dichtung und Wahrheit.

It was written between 1761 and 1762 though only published later that decade in 1766 when Dr. Johnson sold it for Goldsmith at a price of £60. The story begins and occasionally returns to a state of idyllic calm in the parish of the eponymous clergyman, Dr Primrose, but disaster strikes early as Primrose is made penniless by the bankrupting of his merchant investor. The novel follows the vicar's fruitless quest to find his daughter Olivia, his accidental discovery of his son George, and the wretched Squire Thornhill's vulgar treatment of women. Sophia, Olivia's sister, was rescued from drowning by Mr. Burchell whose suspected involvement in the disappearance of Olivia provides some further dramatic content. The moral tale is notable for Primrose's strength of character in times of great difficulty and for its rejection of the ostentatious style of contemporary novels of the period.

Thomas Faed is one of Scotland's most celebrated artists and "it has been truly said that Thomas Faed has done for Scottish art what Robert Burns did for Scottish song. He made it attract universal interest and command universal respect." (Encyclopaedia Americana, 1886). Mary McKerrow recognises that "appreciation of feminine beauty came to him early, and at eight years old he was madly in love with the family nurse, Mattie Hull, 'the bonniest creature I ever looked on'. His talent as a painter, which was well developed before he could write, was remarkable and he exhibited widely at the Royal Scottish Academy in Edinburgh and the Royal Academy in London from 1844. The subject in Sophia and Olivia allowed Fead the opportunity to showcase his skill at rendering feminine sensitivity and beauty, a similarly poignant theme in The Vicar of Wakefield.