Alexander Dennistoun of Golfhill (1790–1874), and Family

Commissioned family portraits provided Victorian painters including Faed with steady income between their major exhibition pieces, and the Dennistoun family group of 1851 records one of Glasgow's prominent merchant families at mid-century. Alexander Dennistoun of Golfhill was a landowner and businessman, and the group portrait fulfils the traditional function of establishing family identity, social standing, and dynastic continuity. Faed approached formal portrait commissions with the same attention to character he brought to his anonymous genre figures, and the group format allowed him to demonstrate his competence in placing multiple likenesses within a unified composition. The Glasgow Museums Resource Centre's holding connects the work to the city whose commercial prosperity produced many such commission opportunities.

Oil on canvas with the formal portrait conventions of three-quarter-length or full-length figure groupings. Interior setting, furnishings, and dress would be rendered with documentary precision to reflect the family's actual domestic circumstances and social standing.