How one painting connects three Scottish greats: Robert Burns, Henry Raeburn and Walter Scott
‘An event bordering upon the sensational’ has just happened with the discovery of a lost painting of Robert Burns by Henry Raeburn
In 1924, a gallery director said the discovery of a lost painting of Robert Burns by the great Henry Raeburn would be “an event bordering upon the sensational”. Well, it’s just happened.
It was found during a house clearance in Surrey and, with no one realising its significance, put up for sale for between £300 to £500 at a London auction.
Believing it was the long lost work, Dr William Zachs, director of Blackie House Library and Museum, paid £68,000 for it. Fortunately, he was right, with experts confirming it is the Raeburn. The painting is now being put on public display for the first time at National Galleries Scotland: National.
If it seems familiar, there’s a reason: Raeburn painted Burns seven years after his death and based his work on Alexander Nasmyth’s well-known portrait.
However, Duncan Thomson, former keeper of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, said it was “more than likely that Raeburn had seen Burns in his heyday in Edinburgh” and “observed that glowing eye that had so impressed the young Walter Scott”. Burns, Raeburn and Scott – this truly is history in the making.
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