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Lot Essay
The original version of the The Wappenshaw could be considered John Faed's most important work. It was exhibited at the Royal Scottish Academy in 1863 and The Royal Academy, London in 1866, where the Art Journal noted '...that there is scarcely a figure that does not invite, and that will not bear, minutest scrutiny' (Art Journal, 1866, p. 168). The picture was purchased by James Baird, the Member of Parliament for Falkirk and is now in the collection of The National Trust for Scotland. Following the picture's success Faed produced two small scale replicas which sold for three hundred guineas each. One is now in the Atkinson Art Gallery, Southport and the other is the present picture, the only known finished version still in a private collection.
A Wappenshaw, as the word suggests was quite literally a 'Weapon Show', when a local militia, under a clan chief or local leader, would muster periodically to show they possessed arms to serve in war. Such gatherings were decreed by King James I in 1424, to be held quarterly, and continued well into the nineteenth-century. Rather than military exercises a shooting match would often take place. To the left of the composition the competitors register while the central figures load their guns in anticipation. The marksman lies on a blanket while taking aim at a moving target which is obscured from the viewer by the spectators avidly watching on. The sport, however, is somewhat secondary to the sense of social occasion. Faed's training as a miniaturist and his eye for detail are put to good use in capturing the idiosyncratic features of each of the forty characters depicted. It is also a gentle satire on parish politics and social hierarchies where well-dressed ladies, ruddy-cheeked drinkers and the concerned mother shielding her daughter from the noise of the guns all rub shoulders.
A Wappenshaw, as the word suggests was quite literally a 'Weapon Show', when a local militia, under a clan chief or local leader, would muster periodically to show they possessed arms to serve in war. Such gatherings were decreed by King James I in 1424, to be held quarterly, and continued well into the nineteenth-century. Rather than military exercises a shooting match would often take place. To the left of the composition the competitors register while the central figures load their guns in anticipation. The marksman lies on a blanket while taking aim at a moving target which is obscured from the viewer by the spectators avidly watching on. The sport, however, is somewhat secondary to the sense of social occasion. Faed's training as a miniaturist and his eye for detail are put to good use in capturing the idiosyncratic features of each of the forty characters depicted. It is also a gentle satire on parish politics and social hierarchies where well-dressed ladies, ruddy-cheeked drinkers and the concerned mother shielding her daughter from the noise of the guns all rub shoulders.