National Galleries of Scotland

Born in 1911 on the Isle of Raasay, Sorley MacLean grew up surrounded by Gaelic culture and song. In 1943 year he published his groundbreaking collection of Gaelic poetry, `Dain do Eimhir?. Yet his work remained little-known outside the Gaelic-speaking world until the 1970s, when he came to the attention of a wider public by publishing in both Gaelic and English. This photograph is part of a series commissioned by Glasgow?s Third Eye Centre to accompany an exhibition of paintings and drawings of Scottish poets by Alexander Moffat. MacLean was arguably the most significant Scottish Gaelic poet of the twentieth century.