James Faed (4 April 1821 – 23 September 1911) was one of three famous Scottish brother painters/artists.
Early life
![The grave of James Faed, Dean Cemetery](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b4/The_grave_of_James_Faed%2C_Dean_Cemetery.jpg)
James was the second son of the six children of James Faed, tenant of Barlay Mill, near
Gatehouse of Fleet
Gatehouse of Fleet ( sco, Gatehoose o Fleet gd, Taigh an Rathaid) is a town half in the civil parish of Girthon and half in the parish of Anwoth divided by the river Water of Fleet, Fleet, Kirkcudbrightshire, within the district council region o ...
,
Galloway
Galloway ( ; sco, Gallowa; la, Gallovidia) is a region in southwestern Scotland comprising the historic counties of Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire. It is administered as part of the council area of Dumfries and Galloway.
A native or i ...
, and Mary née McGeoch. Two of his brothers,
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
and
Thomas
Thomas may refer to:
People
* List of people with given name Thomas
* Thomas (name)
* Thomas (surname)
* Saint Thomas (disambiguation)
* Thomas Aquinas (1225–1274) Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, and Doctor of the Church
* Thomas the Ap ...
and his son James Faed, Jnr. also became artists.
In his early years his father thought James had a marked talent for engineering. When he was sixteen he built a dinghy in one of the outhouses at Barlay Mill, taking him a year. At seventeen he went to
Maryport
Maryport is a town and civil parish in the Allerdale borough of Cumbria, England, historically in Cumberland.
The town is situated just outside the Lake District National Park, at the northern end of the former Cumberland Coalfield.
Locatio ...
with his father and brother John. While John was painting miniatures, James did the same work as his father's men.
Painter
However, with his father's death in 1842 and his work at Barlay Mill virtually at an end, in 1846 James joined his two brothers, John and Thomas, who were living at 6 South West Circus Place in
Edinburgh
Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...
. James began to paint fine
landscape
A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...
s, miniatures, and
portraits
A portrait is a painting, photograph, sculpture, or other artistic representation of a person, in which the face and its expressions are predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. For this re ...
in oils and watercolours and became a regular exhibitor at the
Royal Scottish Academy
The Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) is the country’s national academy of art. It promotes contemporary Scottish art.
The Academy was founded in 1826 by eleven artists meeting in Edinburgh. Originally named the Scottish Academy, it became the ...
for twenty years. His watercolour ''Coast Scene on the Colvend Coast'' is in the
Aberdeen
Aberdeen (; sco, Aiberdeen ; gd, Obar Dheathain ; la, Aberdonia) is a city in North East Scotland, and is the third most populous city in the country. Aberdeen is one of Scotland's 32 local government council areas (as Aberdeen City), and ...
Art Gallery. Two of his miniatures, ''Isabella Lockhart Robertson'' and ''Miss Mary Duncan'' (both now in private hands) are particularly fine.
By 1850 James and Thomas had moved out of Circus Place and obtained a house together at 16
Comely Bank
Comely Bank (; gd, Bruach Cheanalta, IPA: ˆpɾuÉ™xˈçɛnəɫ̪t̪ʰə is an area of Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland. It lies southwest of Royal Botanic Garden and is situated between Stockbridge and Craigleith. It is bound on its norther ...
.
[Edinburgh Post office Directory 1850]
Mezzotinter
Introduced to the
mezzotint
Mezzotint is a monochrome printmaking process of the '' intaglio'' family. It was the first printing process that yielded half-tones without using line- or dot-based techniques like hatching, cross-hatching or stipple. Mezzotint achieves tonali ...
engraver, John Bonnar, James became interested in a more rapid process for preparing the plate for the engraver – possibly the engineering streak in him his father noticed. He also developed an intense interest in mezzotinting and soon began his career in that art and as an engraver in general. As a mezzotinter, for over fifty years, he was possibly only excelled in his day by
Samuel Cousins
Samuel Cousins (9 May 1801 in Exeter – 7 May 1887 in London) was a British mezzotinter.
Life
Cousins was born at Exeter. In 1855 he was elected a full member of the Royal Academy, to which he later gave in trust £15,000 to provide an ...
(1801–1887). Several of Faed's mezzotints were commissioned by the Royal Association for the Promotion of Fine Arts in Scotland.
Engraver
About 1871 James went to
Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...
in order to visit his brother William, who had emigrated, and stayed at Stony Park, Brunswick, the home of Theodotus John Sumner. When that house was later destroyed by fire, a record discovered mentioned that many engravings of cottage life, and proofs, by James Faed, were lost in the fire, but that some which survived were hung in the dining room of the rebuilt house.
His engravings of portraits became widely in demand and his first patron was
John Watson Gordon
Sir John Watson Gordon (1788 – 1 June 1864) was a Scottish portrait painter and president of the Royal Scottish Academy.
Life and work
Gordon was born John Watson in Edinburgh, the eldest son of Captain Watson, R.A., a cadet of the family ...
who in 1850 became President of the
Royal Scottish Academy
The Royal Scottish Academy (RSA) is the country’s national academy of art. It promotes contemporary Scottish art.
The Academy was founded in 1826 by eleven artists meeting in Edinburgh. Originally named the Scottish Academy, it became the ...
and Her Majesty's Limner for Scotland. Faed engraved at least one hundred and thirty three plates, one of which was a Royal Commission for the painting of Queen Victoria and Prince Arthur, by Winterhalter, and his last commission was a portrait of the Countess of Seafield which was hung in the
Royal Academy
The Royal Academy of Arts (RA) is an art institution based in Burlington House on Piccadilly in London. Founded in 1768, it has a unique position as an independent, privately funded institution led by eminent artists and architects. Its pur ...
in 1877.
The last engraving James Faed undertook, at the age of eighty, was a portrait of the
Earl of Home
Earl of Home ( ) is a title in the Peerage of Scotland. It was created in 1605 for Alexander Home of that Ilk, 6th Lord Home. The Earl of Home holds, among others, the subsidiary titles of Lord Home (created 1473), and Lord Dunglass (1605), i ...
, father of the future Prime Minister, Sir
Alec Douglas-Home
Alexander Frederick Douglas-Home, Baron Home of the Hirsel (; 2 July 1903 – 9 October 1995), styled as Lord Dunglass between 1918 and 1951 and being The 14th Earl of Home from 1951 till 1963, was a British Conservative politician who se ...
. It was exhibited in the Royal Academy in 1899 and James received £159/10/- for the commission.
Death
He died suddenly while eating his lunch at 7 Barnton Terrace, Edinburgh, in his ninety-first year. His wife Mary Cotton had died in 1887 at the age of sixty. They are buried with their sons, Dr Stewart Faed (1869-1898) and Francis Grant Faed (1867-1914) in
Dean Cemetery
The Dean Cemetery is a historically important Victorian cemetery north of the Dean Village, west of Edinburgh city centre, in Scotland. It lies between Queensferry Road and the Water of Leith, bounded on its east side by Dean Path and on ...
. The grave lies under the trees at the west end of the north-west section.
References
* McKerrow, Mary, ''The Faeds'', Canongate Publishing Ltd., Edinburgh, 1982, pp. 47–54.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Faed, James
1821 births
1911 deaths
19th-century Scottish painters
Scottish male painters
20th-century Scottish painters
Burials at the Dean Cemetery
19th-century Scottish male artists
20th-century Scottish male artists