THE MISSING RAEBURN PORTRAIT. IN a catalogue issued by William Brown, bookseller, Edinburgh, in 1903 (No. 146), there was offered for sale :: “Three signed Autograph Letters of Sir Henry Raeburn, dated 14th Nov., 1803; 11th Dec., 1803; and 22nd Feb., 1804; also a bill drawn by Sir H. Raeburn upon Messrs Cadell & Davies for £21 in payment of a portrait of Barns which he painted from the original portrait by Nasmyth, and the shipping company's receipt for the case containing the portrait, which was sent from Leith-5 items in all.” The last-named document is in the following terms : "Union Shipping Company's Office, "Received on board the Union Shipping Company's smack Sprightly, James Taylor, master, for London, one case marked, as per margin, 'Cadell & Davies, London,' which I promise to deliver at Miller's Wharf, all and every the dangers and accidents of the seas and navigation, of whatever nature and kind soever excepted. J. RUNNISON." 66 The letter of 11th December is as follows: : "York Place, Edinburgh. 'Gentlemen,-I enclose you a receipt for a case containing Burns's portrait, and I have no doubt you will get it soon and safe, and I flatter myself with the hope of its meeting with your approbation, than which, I assure you, nothing will give me more pleasure. "I have twenty guineas for a portrait the size of Burns's. I do not wish you to remit the money to me, for, as I have money to pay in London, I shall, after receiving your permission, draw upon you for the amount. I am, with much respect, Gentlemen, your most obedient servant, "HENRY RAEBURN." From the letters of 14th November, 1803, and 22nd February, 1804, we give the following extracts : "I have finished a copy of Burns the Poet from the original portrait painted by Mr Nasmyth. I have shown it to Mr Cunningham, who thinks it very like him." "Nothing could be more gratifying to me than the approbation you expressed of the copy I made for you of Robert Burns." The following is the history of these documents, so far as known to the writer. When we were engaged on the "Earnock MSS.," which, through the kindness of the late Sir John Watson, were printed in the Chronicle, a catalogue of the same was forwarded to us by Mr E. Barrington Nash, artist, London, which he had compiled on February 26th, 1889, when the bound volumes containing the documents were passing from the hands of Robson & Kerslake into the possession of J. W. Bouton, bookseller, Broadway, New York. One of the entries in said catalogue bears that "Twenty-one letters by Currie, Cunningham, G. & W. Thomson, Alex. Chalmers, H. Raeburn, Ainslie, Beugo, Gray, and Suttaby" were included in the collection. Apparently the letters remained in America till the date of the Glasgow Burns Exhibition in 1896, when they again crossed the Atlantic, and latterly became the property of Sir John Watson of Earnock. When they were entrusted to us for publication we found no trace of any letters by Raeburn, though we observed a good many blanks on the inlaid pages as if some of the contents had been removed. At the sale of the Craibe Angus Burnsiana, which took place in Dowell's Rooms, Edinburgh, in December, 1902, item 477 of the catalogue is in these words : "Raeburn (Sir Henry), Three MS. Letters, dated 1803-4, to Cadell & Davies, publishers, London, relating to a Portrait of Burns, painted to their order; also Union Shipping Co.'s Receipt for Case containing Burns' Portrait,' and Bill drawn on Cadell & Davies by Raeburn." The writer saw these documents in Edinburgh, but as they were enclosed in a glass case he had no opportunity of handling them. It was at this sale, if we mistake not, that they were purchased by Mr Brown, who, no doubt, will be able to give further information regarding them. It is therefore beyond doubt that Raeburn painted a portrait. of Burns, the evidences of the fact having passed from Cadell & Davies to Robson & Kerslake, from the latter to J. W. Bouton, New York, and from that gentleman to Mr Brown, by purchase at the Craibe Angus sale in 1902. And it is equally clear that the portrait referred to was a copy of the Nasmyth, and not an original Raeburn, as has been sometimes asserted. That the portrait arrived safely in London is borne out by the terms of the letter of February, 1804, which is evidently a reply to a communication acknowledging receipt and approval of the work. What became of it afterwards is not known, but the probability is that it remained in the possession of Cadell & Davies down to 1823. In that year the following advertisement appeared in a 3 vol. edition of Burns published by Cadell:- "Lately published by T. Cadell, Strand, London, the Works of Robert Burns, with an account of his Life and a criticism on his Writings. Elegantly printed in 4 vols., 8vo, with the portrait of the Author from an original picture by Raeburn. In the previous Currie editions the portrait is an engraving of the Nasmyth by Neagle, and in the edition advertised (the eighth, that to which Gilbert Burns contributed additions), it is, strange to say, an engraving after Nasmyth by W. F. Fry. The "original picture by Raeburn" did not appear in engraved or any other form, and no reason is given for the substitution. We are, therefore, left to guess whether the Raeburn referred to had been damaged or had disappeared, or whether the publishers hesitated to discredit the Neagle presentment, for doubtless the Raeburn necessitated a wide departure from its vulgar lines on the part of the engraver. All that we know for certain is that Raeburn's canvas was not utilised. It may have been relegated, for aught we know, to the printer's lumber-room, sold with the rubbish, and consigned to the damp cellar of some "ole clo'" depôt. Chance, however, may have preserved it, and the probability of unearthing it in some odd corner of London should act as a stimulant to all searchers after art treasure trove. It would be interesting in the highest degree to Scotsmen to see how our greatest portrait painter treated the features of our greatest poet even under the disadvantage of interpreting another man's effort in the same direction. That this was not the only instance in which Raeburn worked upon the Nasmyth portrait is substantiated by a letter from George Thomson to Robert Chambers, dated August, 1850, and first published in the Life of George Thomson, by Mr J. Cuthbert Hadden (1898). Discussing the question of a portrait for the Chambers edition, Mr Thomson writes : "I consider my oil painting of him to be the best extant. It is a duplicate painted by Alexander Nasmyth from the one he painted from the life for the Poet's family; but my duplicate had the peculiar advantage of passing through the hands of my kind and highly-talented friend Sir Henry Raeburn, who, on my solicitation, did me the great favour of revising and retouching the face in my own presence, and gave much of that lustre to the eyes which I well remember in the living man, and upon which I could not help gazing during the only day I ever had the pleasure of dining in his delightful company at Mr James Simpson's, bookseller.” This is explicit on two hitherto disputed points-that Raeburn's pencil accounts for the difference observable in the features of the Thomson-Nasmyth, now in the National Gallery, London, when compared with the original in the National Gallery, Princes Street, Edinburgh, and with the Auchendrane replica, now the property of Lord Rosebery; and whether Thomson ever saw Burns in the flesh. On the latter point we have further testimony. We quote again from the volume referred to : "In the sixth volume of Hogg's Instructor (1851, p. 409) there is a long letter from his (Thomson's) pen to which he adds the following postscript :— 'The charms of Burns's conversation may well make us regret that he was not, like Johnson, attended by a Boswell. I speak from experience, for I once had the delight to dine in a small party with him.'' Thomson was advanced in years when he penned these lines, but it is scarce believable that his memory was playing tricks with him on such an important subject as his connection with Burns. The first quotation may also be held as finally settling the question as to whether Raeburn ever painted an original portrait of the Bard, for, if he had had a painting by himself to fall back upon, it is extremely unlikely that he would have taken the Nasmyth as his model. The ground has been so often traversed by other writers that we need not recapitulate the facts. Suffice it to say that Raeburn was in Rome in 1786-87, and although he had returned to Edinburgh by the end of the latter year, the circumstances which prompted a portrait of the Poet had passed away, and there is not a tittle of evidence to show that the two ever came into personal contact. We are aware that Mr Barrington Nash, artist, London, has recovered two canvases which he conscientiously believes to be veritable portraits of the Poet by Raeburn, and some of our readers will doubtless recollect the paper read by Mr Nash in support of their pretensions to an assembly of Burnsians, when they were on view at the Glasgow Burns Exhibition in 1896. That article was afterwards published in pamphle: form by Gardner, of Paisley (1896), to which we refer the curious for further information. Mr Nash has certainly convinced himself of the anthenticity of the portraits in his possession, but to convince others requires more than mere enthusiasm, gentlemanly demeanour, and personal sincerity. The larger canvas is a portrait of somebody, meritorious enough to rank in some respects as a Raeburn, but the features are more like those of a smug country squire than those of the traditional Burns. The other is a poor production, both from the portrait and artistic points of view. EDITOR. ROBERT BURNS. 25th JANUARY, 1908. Again the cherished day comes round, Of Burns, whose intellectual power Go mark him in his golden prime, How deep, pathetic, and sublime Those brilliant strains which flowed With all the fierce and fervid fire Which in his bosom glowed! And still how gentle was each thought, Where is his peer for matchless skill, To strike those wondrous chords at will, JOHN DRAKE, Poet Laureate, Burns Federation. |