Burns's Cottage, Alloway

This snowy scene shows the humble cottage in the village of Alloway in South Ayrshire where the Scottish poet Robert ('Rabbie') Burns was born on 25 January 1759 and where he lived until the age of seven when his family moved to Mount Oliphant farm, southeast of Alloway. The two-roomed thatched cottage was built by his father, a poor tenant farmer, in 1757. Here Burns shared a small box bed with three of his six siblings. The family also shared living space with their livestock. Life was hard.

A late painting by Edinburgh-based landscape and seaport painter and illustrator Sam Bough, in which he shows a cockerel and hens pecking around piles of hay and pigeons flapping on the roof by a small dovecot. On the road a man with two sheepdogs drives a herd of sheep. Bough alludes to the hardship of their lives. There is snow on the ground and icicles hang from the gutters of the cottage. Wind whips the clothing of the figures, heads down, trying to protect themselves against the weather. The sky suggests an oncoming storm.

Burns was celebrated as the 'Ploughman Poet' and 'Bard of Ayrshire'. Before becoming a poet he struggled to make a living running a farm with his brother Gilbert at Mossgiel, near Mauchline. He was extremely influential in Scotland because of the humour and earthy realism of his poems and his respect for the labouring poor. His poems raised the status of the Scots dialect and Scottish rural way of life.

Burns died in 1796, aged only 37, his constitution weakened early by poverty. His memorialisation began almost straight away. He became something of a Scottish cultural icon, a national obsession, recognised the world over. Many public monuments were erected in his honour in the 19th century, often through public subscription, with vast crowds attending unveilings. Burns Clubs were founded across the country. Many Scottish streets were named after him. The first Burns Supper was held in Greenock in 1802 (only 6 years after he died). Burns' cottage is now owned by the National Trust for Scotland, having been restored from a pub by the Burns Monument Trust in 1881.

Bough also had humble beginnings, born in Carlisle to a shoemaker and cook. Self-taught, he managed to get a job as a theatrical scene painter in Manchester, and later in Glasgow. In 1851 he moved to Hamilton and began painting the Scottish landscape, encouraged by artist Daniel Macnee, working in Cadzow Forest with Alexander Fraser. In 1854 he moved to Port Glasgow where he started painting ships and then in 1855 he moved to Edinburgh where he remained until his death in 1878, aged 56. This painting was made just before his health started to fail from prostate cancer.

Credit: Gifted by Andrew T Reid, 1936