This work is part of a series of portraits of Scottish poets commissioned by the Scottish Arts Council in the late 1970s. Robert Garioch Sutherland was part of an outstanding generation of Scottish poets to emerge in the mid-twentieth century. His poetry was almost exclusively written in Scots and he became renowned for his satirical wit. Alongside his teaching post, he was also literary advisor to the cultural review ‘Scottish International’ from 1968-74. This portrait shows Sutherland in his study.