Faults on Both Sides

Faults on Both Sides of 1861 belongs to the category of domestic reconciliation scenes that Faed explored alongside his more overtly politicised works on emigration and poverty. The title frames the depicted conflict as mutually shared — a more evenhandedly sympathetic position than the period's typical treatment of domestic dispute, which usually assigned blame to one party. Scottish genre painting in the Faed tradition inherited from David Wilkie a taste for ambiguous domestic situations rendered with detailed observation of ordinary Scottish interiors and faces. The Tate's acquisition situated the painting in the mainstream of Victorian narrative art, where Faed's contribution was the specificity of his Scottish settings and the emotional restraint of his figure groups.

Oil on canvas with Faed's warm interior palette. His domestic interiors are built through accumulations of carefully rendered humble objects — a fired hearth, plain furniture, serviceable clothing — which collectively ground emotional scenes in social reality.