A new work by Edinburgh figurative artist Deirdre Nicholls will go on show in Ayr next month.
The bust will form part of an exhibition organised by the Scottish National Trust, and is of Robert Burns.
Nicholls’s work is the product of careful research into written, painted and snipped accounts of the bard’s appearance, and may be the most accurate depiction of him ever seen.
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Nicholls told Spurtle one of the main sources for the sculpture was the famous portrait by Alexander Nasmyth, a friend and fellow political traveller of the poet, who resided at 47 York Place (Issue 181). That work, familiar to people around the world, is now held in the Scottish National Gallery.
On fine mornings, the two would meet here at the crack of dawn before setting out on a leisurely stroll to Roslin for breakfast. The pair are depicted together on such a jaunt in a dubiously dated sketch also held by the SNG.