Sunday in the Backwoods of Canada

This painting is the second in a trilogy depicting the plight of Scottish immigrants in Canada by the popular Victorian artist Thomas Faed. Although Faed himself never travelled to this country, in the mid-nineteenth century his cousins the M’Geochs left their farm in Kirkcudbrightshire to settle in Canada. The painting’s lack of references to a specifically Canadian landscape is offset by allusions to Scotland, such as the pot of heather in the window and the portrait of the poet Robert Burns on the door. The narrative aspect of this gathering for the purpose of Sunday worship is elucidated by a passage in a letter: “We have no church here but our loghouse . . . so we e’en take turns about on Sunday in reading the Bible. We are all well except Jeannie, and as happy as can be, considering the country ties we have left.”