page_title: Robert Burns
hierarchical_section_title: Robert Burns
caption_attribution_description: English: Scottish National Portrait Gallery: This half-length portrait of Burns, framed within an oval, has become the most well-known and widely reproduced image of the famous Scottish poet. Nasmyth's painting, commissioned by the publisher William Creech, was to be engraved for a new edition of Burn's poems. He is shown fashionably dressed against a landscape, evoking his rural background in Alloway, Ayrshire. Burns and Nasmyth had become good friends, having been introduced to one another in Edinburgh by a mutual patron, Patrick Miller of Dalswinton. Nasmyth, pleased to have recorded Burns' likeness convincingly, decided to leave the painting in a slightly unfinished state.
context_page_description: Robert Burns was a famous poet born in Alloway, Ayrshire, Scotland. Some of his most famous poems include To A Mouse, Auld Lang Syne, and Tam o Shanter. Burns is seen as the national poet of Scotland. Much of his work is written in broad Scots, a version of English. His poem and song A Man's A Man For A' That was sung at the opening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999. "To A Louse, On Seeing One on a Lady's Bonnet at Church" is a 1786 Scots poem by Robert Burns.
  Burns died at 37, and is buried in the graveyard of St Michael's Church, Dumfries, Scotland.
context_section_description: Robert Burns (25 January 1759 – 1796) was a famous poet born in Alloway, Ayrshire, Scotland. Some of his most famous poems include To A Mouse, Auld Lang Syne, and Tam o Shanter. Burns is seen as the national poet of Scotland. Much of his work is written in broad Scots, a version of English. His poem and song A Man's A Man For A' That was sung at the opening of the Scottish Parliament in 1999. "To A Louse, On Seeing One on a Lady's Bonnet at Church" is a 1786 Scots poem by Robert Burns.
  Burns died at 37, and is buried in the graveyard of St Michael's Church, Dumfries, Scotland.
caption: The best-known portrait of Burns, 
   by Alexander Nasmyth, 1787 (detail)
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