Alistair Hardaker | Image: Dr William (Bill) Zachs photographed with re-discovered portrait of Robert Burns by Henry Raeburn (Nick Mailer)
Painting purchased at auction for £68,000 confirmed as missing 1803 commission after examination by specialists and conservation work.
Five experts have confirmed that a portrait purchased at a London auction in March 2025 is the lost 1803 painting of Robert Burns by Sir Henry Raeburn, resolving a mystery that has persisted for over 220 years.
The painting was found during a house clearance in Surrey and consigned to auction in Wimbledon with a starting price of between £300 and £500.
Dr William Zachs, director of Blackie House Library and Museum in Edinburgh, purchased the portrait for £68,000 believing it could be the missing artwork.
Following cleaning and examination, the Raeburn attribution has been confirmed by James Holloway, former director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Dr Duncan Thomson, former keeper of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, Helen Smailes, senior curator of British Art at the National Galleries of Scotland, Lesley Stevenson, senior paintings conservator at the National Galleries of Scotland, and Dr Bendor Grosvenor, art historian.
In 1924 TCF Brotchie, Director of Glasgow Art Galleries and Museums, wrote that the painting’s discovery would be ‘an event bordering upon the sensational’. Over the decades various portraits of Burns were attributed to Raeburn but all were dismissed and the painting remained lost until now.
The painting was commissioned in 1803 at a fee of 20 guineas by publishers Cadell & Davies to be engraved for future editions of Burns’s books. Historical correspondence between Raeburn and the publishers proved the existence of the artwork, although with no clues as to where it ended up.
It will now go on public display for the first time to celebrate Burns Night (25 January). It will be available to view free of charge at National Galleries Scotland: National, on the Mound in Edinburgh, from today, 22 January.
William Zachs, owner of the painting and director of Blackie House Library and Museum in Edinburgh said: ‘This week at Burns Suppers in Scotland and around the world we toast the Immortal Memory of the poet. Now we have a new immortal visual memory – a once lost painting by Sir Henry Raeburn, the Scottish great portrait artist, that depicts Robert Burns not just as a genius poet but as a celebrated (and handsome) Scotsman whose significance would endure “till a’ the seas gang dry”.”
James Holloway, former Director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery 1997 to 2012, said: “This is a once in a generation discovery: thrilling for lovers of both Burns and Raeburn.”
The painting will go on display free of charge at National Galleries Scotland: National on the Mound in Edinburgh from 22 January to coincide with Burns Night on 25 January. It will then tour to the Robert Burns Birthplace Museum in Alloway from 21 July.
