Possibly the best likeness of Fergusson, this portrait was painted by his friend, the artist Alexander Runciman (1736-1785). The two men were both members of Edinburgh’s Cape Club, a ‘Bohemian’ social club of artists, actors, musicians, and poets who frequently met in the city's taverns. The Cape Club members all had different nicknames, with Runciman being called ‘Sir Brimstone’, reputedly due not just to his profession, but also his fiery temper. Fergusson’s was ‘Sir Precentor’, probably because of his fine singing voice.

With his big eyes, strong nose, and full lips, this iteration of Fergusson is markedly different from some of the other depictions of him. What do you think Fergusson looked like?

As of August 2024, this Runciman portrait is back out on permanent display at the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, after being in storage for several years.

This very muscly depiction of Fergusson is quite unlike other images of the poet we are used to seeing. Fergusson was reportedly a very sickly child, who was often so unwell that he missed school. A biographer remarked that even as an adult ‘he had all the appearance of a person in delicate health’, and often the portraits of Fergusson reflect this. Here, the robust figure is more like that of a boxer or athlete.

According to Thomas Sommers, one of the poet’s friends who wrote a book about Fergusson, this was the ‘best likeness’ he had seen, and it was on his testimony that this engraving was produced for the 1821 edition of Fergusson’s poems.

It is from an original painting by Alexander Runciman, who used Fergusson as a model for the ‘Prodigal Son’. This engraving does have the strong nose, full lips, and large eyes of Runciman’s other Fergusson portrait.

The original painting this photogravure is based on is located in the National Galleries of Scotland and is currently in storage. Dating from post-1770, this portrait was previously thought to have been painted by Alexander Runciman. However, due to the differences between this and Runciman’s confirmed portrait of Fergusson, it is now credited to an unknown artist.

This photogravure is a copy of the painting which was published in a variety of later publications. Creating a photogravure is a complex process, involving chemicals, a photographic negative and a copper plate. Developed in the 1840s by William Henry Fox Talbot (1800-1877), it was primarily used to create reproductions of photographs from the 1880s to the early twentieth century.

This edition demonstrates Fergusson’s enduring popularity in the nineteenth century. His works were published in the years following his death in Scotland, England and America, including in New York in 1788 and 1799 and Philadelphia in 1815.

Of most interest though is the Oddy edition’s portrait, which many scholars have previously called ‘of no value or interest’. Rather than being a portrait of Fergusson, it was prepared from the face of Fergusson’s younger sister, Margaret Duval. It was said that she particularly resembled Fergusson and so consented to sit for this engraving.

This commemorative panel to Fergusson is made of red granite and bronze, and located in the ‘Writers Corner’ of St Giles’ Cathedral. In the twentieth century, an increasing number of memorials of authors were installed in the Cathedral, highlighting their consistent popularity. These included plaques depicting Robert Louis Stevenson (1906), Margaret Oliphant (1908), and Robert Fergusson.

The sculptor of the Fergusson memorial was James Pittendrigh Macgillivray (1856-1938), who is best known for his public works of art, which include the Burns statue in Irvine and statues in Glasgow Cathedral, George Square, and on the loggia of Glasgow City Chambers. He was the only sculptor member of the Glasgow Boys school of artists, after studying under John Mossman.

Unveiled twenty years ago, on 17 October 2004, this statue of Robert Fergusson was created by sculptor David Annand (b. 1948). Its location outside Edinburgh’s Canongate Kirk (where Fergusson is buried) in a prime location on the Royal Mile mean the statue has become something of a tourist destination.

In June 2023, the statue went mysteriously missing, causing uproar on social media and demonstrating its enduring public appeal. It transpired that the City of Edinburgh Council had temporarily removed the statue for repair, and it was restored soon afterwards. Fergusson continues to stride down the Canongate, book in hand, two hundred and fifty years after his death.

Following a public consultation in 2002 to choose a design for the Fergusson statue, Annand’s statue was chosen as the favourite with 67% of the vote. Over 15,000 people voted!

Following a period of being hidden away in the National Galleries of Scotland: Portrait, the famous painting of Fergusson by Alexander Runciman has recently been brought into the light. To celebrate this and to mark the 250^th anniversary of the death of Fergusson, this special event took place in November 2024. Watch this video to see Professor Rhona Brown, Professor of Scottish Textual Cultures at the University of Glasgow and Liz Louis, Curator (Portraiture 1700-1800), discuss the life, death and artistic networks of Edinburgh’s unofficial poet laureate.