Robert Burns

‘As I was walking a' alane’ (1 of 2 sheets mounted together to form one illustration): one of a series of illustrations for 'The Twa Corbies'

About this artwork

The Twa Corbies’ is a traditional Scottish poem. It describes a conversation between two crows as they plan to feast on the corpse of a slain knight. In the late 1930s, the decorative artist Robert Burns produced a series of works which illustrated each stanza of the poem in an Art Nouveau style. Displayed here is one half of his interpretation of the first stanza, showing the knight as he wanders through the gloom. The artist's use of dark colours and shadowy tones not only adds to the ominous feeling of these images, but also invites the viewer to look more closely at the details depicted in each scene; the flowers in the field, the whirling waters of the stream below, the tiny feathers gathered around the beak of each bird.

Updated January 2022

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Robert Burns

Robert Burns