Seeing Robert Burns: How Authentic Are the Images of Scotland’s National Bard?
- David Ruthven
- 4 days ago
- 4 min read
There are over 60 statues and countless portraits of Robert Burns around the world giving the impression that the facial image of the poet is clearly defined and established.
However from January 2026 a new Portrait of Scotland's greatest Bard, Robert Burns, will hang in The Scottish National Galleries in Edinburgh. This new portrait has been confirmed as attributable to the great Scottish portrait artist Henry Raeburn (1756 – 1823). Finding the missing portrait of Burns had been the task, set by himself, of Burns scholar and enthusiast Dr Bill Zachs(Director of the Blackie House Library and Museum in Edinburgh). Using a collection of historical correspondence he believed a Raeburn portrait did exist and it seemed his hunch had been confirmed when he came across an unknown portrait at a London auction house in 2025. Having purchased the portrait for £68,000, Dr Zachs returned to Scotland and began the process of attribution. Experts have now confirmed that the portrait is without doubt the work of Henry Raeburn. Since this week it hangs in the National Gallery alongside the famous Nasmyth portrait from 1787 and will remain there until July after which it will be displayed in The Robert Burns Birthplace Museum in Ayr.
In 1963 the Scottish Historian and art critic, Basil Skinner, who had been appointed Assistant Keeper of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery at the unprecedented age of 31 in 1954 wrote a defining essay on the authenticity of Burns' artistic image. In the essay entitled "Burns: Authentic Likeness" Skinner pointed out that an "authentic" portrait "must have been painted directly from the sitter." Given this test he goes onto suggest that there are only 6 possible authentic portraits and images that were made with Robert Burns as the sitter.
The Alexander Nasmyth Head-size portrait – 1787
Medium – Oil on Canvas
Measurements: 38.40 x 32.40 cm; Framed: 63.50 x 57.00 x 9.00 cm
Displayed at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery
This is the best known portrait of Burns by his friend Alexander Nasmyth who was better known as a landscape artist.
The Alexander Nasmyth full-length Portrait – 1828
Medium – Oil on Wood
Measurements: 61.10 x 44.50 cm; Framed: 83.50 x 68 x 8.80 cm
Displayed at The National Gallery of Scotland
The John Miers bust length Silhouette – 1787
Medium – Ink on Plaster
Measurements: 22.20 x 20.30 cm; Framed: 43.60 x 41.60 x 6.20 cm
Owned by The National Gallery of Scotland – not currently on display
The original likeness was taken from life in Edinburgh in November 1787 but a silhouette is evidently less useful for establishing a true likeness
The John Beugo Engraving – 1787
Medium - Line engraving on paper
Measurements: 10.16 x 7.62 cm
Displayed The Scottish National Portrait Gallery
It is known that Buego was a good friend of Burns and Burns used copies of this engraving to hand out as souvenirs during his tours of Scotland.
The Alexander Reid Miniature – 1795/96
Medium - Watercolour on ivory
Measurements: 7.60 x 6.30 cm
Displayed The Scottish National Portrait Gallery
Alexander Reid's miniature portrait was made in the last eighteen months of Burns life and was described by the Poet as being "the best likeness of him ever made."
The Peter Taylor half-length Portrait – 1786
Medium – Oil on wood
Measurements: 22.20 x 20.30 cm; Framed: 43.60 x 41.60 x 6.20 cm
Owned by The National Gallery of Scotland – not currently on display
The story goes that Taylor offered to make a portrait of Burns at a meeting at a dinner party in December 1786. Supposedly the Portrait was completed in 3 sittings.
Basil Skinner makes the point that none of these artists could be considered portraitists; Alexander Nasmyth was undoubtably an accomplished artist but he was a landscape specialist. Peter Taylor who was the first artist to paint Burn's face was a house and coach painter. Skinner puzzles at "the very absence of any established name among the portraitists of Burns." The discovery of the Raeburn Burns finally does provide us with a work by a true portraitist. However there is no evidence that Raeburn actually met Burns. Raeburn used the Nasmyth portrait to create his own image of the poet and whilst we can admire the brush work and its artistic finesse can we really be sure that it provides us with a reliable resemblance as to what Burns actually looked like.
Thirty eight years after the death of Robert Burns and just prior to the funeral of his widow, Jean Armour Burns on 31st March 1834, Burns body was exhumed from the Mausoleum in St. Michael's Churchyard in Dumfries when it was opened to receive his wife's body. It was decided that a plaster cast be made of the poet's skull. The pseudo-science of Phrenology was at its height and it was thought that a study of the skull would provide an incite into Burns' mental traits but it provided no further indication of his facial appearance
The plaster cast was used again in 2013 when Caroline Wilkinson, Professor of Craniofacial Identification at the University of Dundee used it in attempt to recreate a facial likeness of Robert Burns. The reconstruction featured in an STV Documentary called “In Search of Robert Burns.” Professor Wilkinson describes the process of "assessing as much material as we could for this reconstruction, including skeletal and anatomical structure, facial proportions from the Reid miniature and the Miers silhouette, and texture details from the portraits." She goes on to say that the "3D depiction is as accurate as possible based on the available information, and shows Burns in his full living glory.”
The newly Henry Raeburn attributed portrait of Robert Burns is a welcome addition to the images of Robert Burns but it will not necessarily alter the image each one of us has of what the poet looked like. Perhaps the shortbread tin has already done that. And does that really matter for whatever he looked like our image of him as a human being comes from his poetry and song.
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