\n The painting, by the renowned Scottish portrait artist Henry Raeburn \u2013 who was Burns\u2019s contemporary, was found during a house clearance and put up to auction for \u00a3300-\u00a3500 in March 2025.\n<\/p>\n
\n Dr Bill Zachs, the director of Blackie House Library and Museum in Edinburgh and a long-term Burns scholar and enthusiast, ultimately bought the painting for \u00a368,000 believing it could be the elusive missing artwork.\n<\/p>\n
\n It has since been cleaned and examined by experts, who confirm that it is the lost Raeburn portrait.\n<\/p>\n
\n Dr Bill Zachs pictured alongside the Raeburn (left) and Nasmyth portraits of Robert Burns (Image: Nick Mailer)\n<\/p>\n
\n It will be available to view free of charge at National Galleries Scotland: National, on the Mound in Edinburgh, from January 22, to celebrate Burns Night.\n<\/p>\n
\n Commissioned in 1803 at a fee of 20 guineas by the publishers Cadell & Davies, the painting was to be engraved for future editions of Burns\u2019s books. However, it had not been seen since.\n<\/p>\n
\n In 1924, TCF Brotchie, the director of Glasgow Art Galleries and Museums, wrote that the painting\u2019s discovery would be \u201can event bordering upon the sensational\u201d.\n<\/p>\n
\n The Raeburn attribution has been confirmed by James Holloway, former director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery; Dr Duncan Thomson, former keeper of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery; Helen Smailes, senior curator of British Art at the National Galleries of Scotland; Lesley Stevenson, senior paintings conservator at the National Galleries of Scotland; and Dr Bendor Grosvenor, art historian.\n<\/p>\n
\n Zachs, who is the owner of the painting but has leant it to the National Galleries, said: \u201cThis week at Burns Suppers in Scotland and around the world we toast the immortal memory of the poet.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cNow we have a new immortal visual memory \u2013 a once lost painting by Sir Henry Raeburn, the Scottish great portrait artist, that depicts Robert Burns not just as a genius poet but as a celebrated (and handsome) Scotsman whose significance would endure \u2018till a’ the seas gang dry\u2019.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Stevenson said: \u201cRaeburn\u2019s expressive, seemingly effortless brushwork, the characteristic warm palette, soft, atmospheric lighting and sensitive rendering of the instantly recognisable Robert Burns, are a joy. This is a significant discovery and one we can all celebrate.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n Gerard Carruthers, the Francis Hutcheson professor of Scottish literature at the University of Glasgow, said: \u201cA lost likeness of Burns and a new Raeburn to boot: this really is two red letter days in one.\n<\/p>\n
\n \u201cThere have been rumours of the portrait’s existence over many decades, but the recent detective work to authenticate has been simply outstanding.\u201d\n<\/p>\n
\n <\/p>\n
\n Raeburn did not have Burns sit for him, but based his work on the 1787 portrait of the Bard by Alexander Nasmyth (above).\n<\/p>\n
\n Burns, who died in 1796, had achieved such immense popularity by 1802 that publishers Cadell & Davies decided to commission a new version of Nasmyth\u2019s original.\n<\/p>\n
\n One of Scotland\u2019s most celebrated painters, Raeburn \u2013 a leading portraitist of the late 18th and early 19th centuries \u2013 was drafted in.\n<\/p>\n
\n Over the years correspondence between Raeburn and Cadell & Davies, regarding both the commission and the delivery of the painting, came to light.\n<\/p>\n
\n This proved the existence of the artwork, although with no clues as to where it ended up. One letter dated 22 February 1804 from Raeburn reads: \u201cNothing could be more gratifying to me than the approbation you express of the copy I made.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The painting, by the renowned Scottish portrait artist Henry Raeburn \u2013 who was Burns\u2019s contemporary, was found during…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":388697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,6485,6486,1120,96,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-388696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=388696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/388696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/388697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=388696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=388696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=388696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}