Portrait of Robert Burns, by an unknown artist, believed to be a contemporary portrait of the Poet.
The history of the portrait prior to about 1870 is unknown. It was purchased by Mr C.E.Green, of the Edinburgh firm of legal publishers, in about 1914 in Dowell's saleroom, and bequeathed to the City by Mrs M.A.Green in February 1960.
The portrait is considered to be of Burns:- the man has a slight stoop, which it was said Burns, being a ploughman, had; the left hand is resting on a volume of Shakespeare, and beside it is an inkstand under which is a book which matches the first Edinburgh edition of Burns' poems; a seal with a masonic emblem hangs from his fob (Burns was an active Freemason); and, finally, the unusual appearance of the mouth which matches a statement made by the poet's brother Gilbert, in a letter to George Thomson, that his 'brother's lip showed a separation outwards when not speaking'.
