Robert Burns (1826-1891) - La bergerie

Oil on canvas, titled and depicting a sheepfold signed

Robert Burns (1826 - 1891)
Scottish School

Robert Burns (artist)

Excerpt from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
For other people named Robert Burns, see Robert Burns (disambiguation).

Robert Burns, HRSA, RSW (1869–1941) was a Scottish painter, engraver and designer. He was one of the early proponents of the Art Nouveau style in Scotland and a remarkable decorative artist.

Life

49 Northumberland Street, Edinburgh
Burns was born in Edinburgh in 1869. His father was Archibald Burns, a pioneer of photography from Hamilton. The family lived for a while at Rock House on Calton Hill, in what had been the workshop of Hill & Adamson. Robert was educated at the Royal High School and at the Dollar Academy. [1]

He moved to Glasgow as a young man and attended evening classes at the Glasgow School of Art. [2] On the advice of Edward Arthur Walton to pursue an artistic career, he left Scotland for London where he enrolled as a student at the Fred Brown School in Westminster. In 1889, he settled in Paris and, during the following two years, studied at the Delécluse Academy under the direction of Auguste Joseph Delécluse, Paul-Louis Delance and Edward Frederick Ertz. [citation needed] He was elected president of the Society of Scottish Artists in 1901. After a trip to Morocco in 1920, he returned to Edinburgh. In 1924, he was again elected president of the Society of Scottish Artists, a position he held until 1927 [3]. He followed the example of Arts and Crafts movement artists, employing various materials in artisanal works to reinforce the relationship between the arts, commerce and industry.

Burns was associated with the Scottish cultural renaissance of the late Victorian era led by Patrick Geddes. He contributed illustrations for the four volumes of The Evergreen: A Northern Seasonal published by Patrick Geddes and Colleagues between 1895 and 1897. [4][5][6][7] His Natura Naturans, published in The Book of Winter in 1895, would have influenced Gustav Klimt’s Fishblood (1898). [8] He also designed costumes for Geddes’ historical performances.

The most famous and comprehensive Burns projects concerned Crawford’s Tea Room (1926), located on Hanover Street [9], right beside Princes Street in Edinburgh.

Burns combined commercial work with teaching, becoming head of the drawing and painting department at the Edinburgh College of Art, where he taught from 1908 to 1919. [10] In addition to working as a painter on mythological and landscape themes, Burns was a keen engraver and drew numerous high-quality books, influenced by both the Kelmscott Press and the Book of Kells. His landscape paintings, mainly in watercolor, often depicted the Pentland Hills near Edinburgh, as well as the beaches of Iona. It was on Iona that Burns and his close friend and fellow artist William Caldwell Crawford first met the poet and activist Janet Margaret Benson. Burns ultimately became the godfather of two of their three children, Ruth and the Edinburgh-born composer Robert Crawford.

Early in the 20th century, Burns was already something of a success, which allowed him to buy 49 Northumberland Street; a large Georgian house in Edinburgh’s New Town, where he converted the attic into a large studio. [11]

dimensions of the work: unframed: 56 cm x 81 cm

The work is signed lower right
presents some marks and scratches, see photos.

Robert BURNS auction results in Painting:

Robert BURNS
Sheepfold

Lot No. 21
Painting
Oil on canvas
56 x 81 cm
Not sold
Estimate: 500 € - 700 €
ARTS & ANTIQUES
19/09/2005
Bernaerts Auctioneers
Antwerp, Belgium
Details
signed “R.Burns”
Reproduced page 14 of the catalog