Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1871-02-05

Rev. p. Hately Waddell, a Scottish
/ clergyman, has addressed a letter to
/ the Glasgow Herald, in which ne say,
that a curious relic of Robert Burns
/ has lately come into his hands: sit is
another portrait of Burns, represent.
ing him in his youth, about the time
he was a haXdresseT at Irvine-a pool
| enough affair artisticaIly, ard hardly
worth speaking of, il it did not carry
| us so far back in his histOry-and has
been certainly the very first attempt
! ever made to represent him on can.
vas. The artist, whoever he was had
bmOre ambition than skill. If his skill
had been equal to his ambition, il
might have been a valuable work.
The portrait is a life-size bust, and the
painters idea has been to bring theface
and figure forward, out of q deep
shadow into q dim light, through an
oval opening. The light and shadow
thus divide the oval into halt moon
curves. The face and figure are in a
dull glare, but the back of the head
and shoulders are lost in the darkness
the whole effect being secOnd-rate
Rembrantish; and If the artists eye
or pencil had been equal to his own
design, we might have had Burns in
his youth to some perfection. But l
lament 10 say it is much otherwise.
The pigments employed have been
coarse, the outlines are incorrect and
the shading utterly defective. The
brow, in fact, has almost no shading
at all, the upper lip and mouth are
W~retchedly done, and these features
alone destroy the expression of the
picture. the eyes might have been
very good, for they are large black
brown and open, as Burns are known
to have been; but the eyebrows are
poor, and the eyes themselves have
been fXed-by the painters direction,
dOubtless-On some given object in the
corner, which converts their anima-
ton into d unpleasant stare. The
complexion is uniformly dark, or
rather saIlOw.
1.-THE history Of this curious old
relic, so lar as known to myself, in
wolves a separate interest of its own,
aud is as follows: There was in Ir-
vine, about the time indicated, a
young lady who was one of Burns
temporary flames, and seems to have
accepted his addresses, but afterward
disddined or rather disOWued them,
on the alleged ground of his own
awkward or ungainIy manner-a de-
tciency which he himself, both then,
as we have already seen, and on 9TH
er occasions before that date, openly
acknowledges and laments. For
some unexplained reason, however,
she accepted and retained this por-
trait, such.8s il is; and, as a memo
rial perhaps OF their early friendship,
preserved It till her dying day-hav-
ing learned like many more, by de-
grees, to interpret masculine awk-
Wardness otherwise than as a symp-
tom Of stupidity. AT her death it
was disposed of without ceremony,
and became the property OF a gentle
man who was then the tenant of
LOchlea, the very farm where the DO
cts family resided when he himself
was dOmiciled at Irvine. In this
gentleman's possession l first saw the
picture in 1866, and since his death
it has been transferred very recently
to me.
Elm conclusion I may say that there
seems to be only three portraits, re-
ally done from life, of Robert Burns;
first, this very humble affair, about
1881; second, Nasmyfh's picture,
which is more like part of a fine land
scape than genuine portrait, in 1857;
third, the miniature of 1875, in which
we find not only the features and
but the very soul of the man,
represented. All other pictures yet
known have been duplicates, copies,
composition sketches, mistakes, or
purp0rting to be real. There
are two or three small profles besides
the foundation of which seems to be
the silhouette by Miers. Of these one
known to me, and of which l took a
tracing some years ago, has a turned
up nose and a perpendicular Occiput!
Another described to me by an emil
nent literary authority, seems to be
Of quite as little account; while innu-
engravings of him, such as in
some of the cheap and 0ld-fashiOned
editions of his works, being partly
'doctOred,' and partly copied from
of copies, are just what might
be eXDgcted in the Circumstances,N