The Reaper

Thomas Faed was the most successful of the remarkable family of naturally gifted artists who grew up at Barlay Mill near Gatehouse of Fleet in the early 19th century. He was apprenticed to a Castle Douglas draper at 16, but moved to Edinburgh on the death of his father a year later to help his older brother John with his miniature portrait painting business. There he studied at the Trustees' Academy, where he excelled. By the 1840s his scenes of Scottish scenery and domestic life were selling well. He became an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1847, and first exhibited at the Royal Academy in London in 1851. Like several other Scottish artists at this time, he moved to London to further his career in 1851, at the age of 26.   The Reaper of 1875 is a typical rural subject painted at a time when such subjects were in popular demand. It may be that this painting was inspired by Wordsworth's 1803 poem The Solitary Reaper, with its opening lines 'Behold her, single in the field / Yon solitary, Highland lass'. This particular painting was gifted by the artist to Castle Douglas Town Council, the town where he holidayed from London in 1896.