About this artwork

In spite of his enduring fame, Robert Burns’s early career proved difficult. Poor returns from farming in his native Ayrshire and a series of complicated love affairs left him in a challenging financial and personal situation. In desperation, he resolved in mid-1786 to accept employment on a Jamaican sugar plantation overseeing enslaved labourers. Burns booked two separate tickets to sail from Greenock. Instead, he travelled to Edinburgh to prepare the second edition of his Poems, Chiefly in the Scottish Dialect, for which Nasmyth’s evocative portrait was painted as the frontispiece. Still agonising over his future, Burns purchased a third ticket to sail from Leith. Soon after, however, the huge success of the new edition of his poems secured his position, enabling him to stay in his native Scotland.

Updated September 2023

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Alexander Nasmyth

Alexander Nasmyth