Lost portrait of Robert Burns goes on display after 220 years

Lost Robert Burns Portrait Rediscovered After 200 Years

A portrait of Scotland’s national poet Robert Burns by renowned painter Sir Henry Raeburn has gone on public display for the first time after being lost for more than 220 years. The painting, which resurfaced at a house clearance in Surrey and was sold at a London auction in March 2025, is now exhibited at the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh, just days before Burns Night celebrations on January 25.

From House Clearance to National Treasure

The discovery began when the portrait appeared at Wimbledon Auctions last spring with a modest estimate of just £300 to £500. Without confirmed attribution, few bidders suspected the work’s true provenance. William Zachs, director of Blackie House Library and Museum in Edinburgh and a longtime Burns scholar, recognized its potential and won the painting after what The Art Newspaper described as “a tense nine-minute bidding war”. The final hammer price reached £68,000, with the total including buyer’s premium coming to £84,320.artnet

“Every year or so, a painting comes up which could be a lost Raeburn, and none ever has been,” Zachs said. “It was a huge gamble, but for the greatest Scottish poet painted by one of the greatest Scottish portrait painters, it was worth the risk”.theartnewspaper

Following conservation work, five experts confirmed the painting’s authenticity: James Holloway, former director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery; 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; and art historian Bendor Grosvenor.museumsandheritage

A 220-Year Mystery Solved

Raeburn painted the portrait in 1803, commissioned by publishers Cadell and Davies for 20 guineas to serve as the basis for engravings in new editions of Burns’s poetry. The work was based on Alexander Nasmyth’s celebrated 1787 portrait of Burns, painted during the poet’s lifetime. Shortly after completion, the Raeburn portrait vanished without explanation.midlothianview

In 1924, TCF Brotchie, director of Glasgow Art Galleries and Museums, predicted that its rediscovery would be “an event bordering upon the sensational”. Various portraits were attributed to Raeburn over the decades, but all were dismissed until now.artnet

Holloway called the find “a once in a generation discovery: thrilling for lovers of both Burns and Raeburn”. Thomson described it as “of enormous significance, linking the poet with Scotland’s greatest artist”.nen

Side by Side for Burns Night

The Raeburn portrait now hangs alongside Nasmyth’s original at the National Gallery on the Mound in Edinburgh, reuniting the works for the first time and allowing visitors to compare the two depictions. Admission is free. The painting will later travel to the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum in Alloway beginning July 21.the-independent

“Now we have a new immortal visual memory,” Zachs said, “a once lost painting by Sir Henry Raeburn that depicts Robert Burns not just as a genius poet but as a celebrated Scotsman whose significance would endure ’till a’ the seas gang dry'”.nen