Robert Burns
(1759-1796), PoetMid-Georgian Portraits Catalogue Entry
Sitter associated with 13 portraits
Robert Burns was born into a struggling farming family in the lowlands of Scotland, where he was brought up on a rich oral culture of folk songs and tales in the Scots dialect. He was also taught to read and write in English and Latin. His first major publication, Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect (1786), was presented and received as the work of an uneducated ploughman poet writing songs about the rural world around him. The book was immediately popular and its success was a factor in Burns abandoning plans to emigrate to Jamaica, made during a crisis in his personal life. He later published an abolitionist poem, ‘The Slave’s Lament’. Despite struggling with depression and the consequences of numerous affairs, as well as working as a farmer and exciseman, Burns continued to write and publish poetry until his early death at 37. On his death he was recognised as Scotland’s national bard, a position he has held ever since.
Album introductory carte-de-visite
by Unknown photographer
albumen carte-de-visite, 1860s
NPG x197215
by Edward Mitchell, after Alexander Nasmyth
line engraving, (1787)
NPG D32442
by John Beugo, after Alexander Nasmyth
stipple engraving, published 1787
NPG D13790
by Paton Thomson, after Alexander Nasmyth
line engraving, published 1798
NPG D32441
published by James Cochrane & Co, after John Miers
line engraving, published 1834 (1787)
NPG D16378
Fictitious portrait of Robert Burns
by John Burnet, after Sir William Allan
line engraving, circa 1838
NPG D32438
by John Christian Zeitter, after Alexander Nasmyth
mezzotint, published 1839
NPG D32440
Burns and Highland Mary (Mary Campbell ('Highland Mary'); Robert Burns)
by Henry Edward Dawe
mezzotint, published 1849
NPG D32445
after Alexander Nasmyth
gravure, late 19th century
NPG D32439
Unknown man, formerly known as Robert Burns
by Unknown artist
chromolithograph, early 20th century
NPG D32444
Robert Burns ('Burns in the Storm of 1793')
by George H. Every, published by J.H. Wilson, after James M. Scrymgeour
mixed-method engraving, circa 1848
NPG D49696
by Robert Bowyer Parkes, published by Paul and Dominic Colnaghi & Co, after Alexander Nasmyth
mixed-method engraving, published 5 June 1888
NPG D49695
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