Robert Burns ARSA 1869-1941

ROBERT BURNS AND HIS MASTERPIECE FOR CRAWFORD’S TEAROOMS IN EDINBURGH

Robert Burns ARSA (1869-1941) was an enigmatic artist and designer who was notable within the Celtic and Arts and Crafts revivals in Scotland.  He contributed to Patrick Geddes’s The Evergreen and his illustration Natura Naturans has been mooted as one of the earliest authentic art nouveau images in a Scottish, if not wider European context.   

Elected an Associate of the RSA in 1902 and appointed as the first Head of Drawing and Painting at the new Edinburgh College of Art in 1908, Burns was an influential teacher to the likes of Anne Redpath, Eric Robertson and Adam Bruce Thomson.  He would however sever all ties with the establishment; leaving his post at the college in 1919 and resigning as an Associate of the Academy in 1920, after feeling he had been passed over for election as a full Academician.   There is no definitive record in the Academy archives of the reasons for this, but it may have come down to a schism in the Academy over the recognition of the status of applied art.

It was three years after his resignation when Burns received a commission that would shape the rest of his career.  The design and decorative arrangement of D S Crawford’s tearoom (of Crawford’s biscuits fame) on Edinburgh’s Princes Street was something that he would use to merge the realms of fine and applied art. 

In 1922 David Crawford had acquired premises from 70 Princes Street to the corner of Hanover Street (now Costa Coffee), with the dream of creating a complex of restaurants and tearooms, featuring interiors arranged by Burns.  Although the project went over budget, meaning Burns was unable to carry out designs to the level intended on Princes Street, the Hanover Street building offered scope for full creativity, and it was here that his masterpiece, The Chinese Room took shape.  Within this room Burns created an extravagant decorative scheme wholly derived from Oriental art.  He carefully chose the decorative furnishings for the room and selected, customised and in a few cases, designed the furniture.   Even the menu cards, labels, cake stands and china were carefully designed by Burns or one of his team. Every angle was considered. 

However the most striking element of the room, and one of only two pieces that knowingly survive today, was the frieze that depicts the famous wreck of the Spanish Armada fleet off the coast of Scotland in 1588.  The frieze is formed of twenty seven individual panels in oil and gold leaf that when joined to make nine triptych scenes, gracefully merge Oriental style with Scottish colour and landscape. 

They are a sumptuous relic of the public artistry that defined the arts and crafts movement and the Academy was fortunate enough to receive them as an outright gift late last year.  Their history is nearly as eventful as the scene the panels depict. 

In 1983 Sears Holdings discovered them behind false walls while renovating the building ono Princes Street and discussions with then President Sir Robin Philipson led to them being placed on ‘indefinite loan’ to the academy.  This left the panels in a degree of limbo as no conservation could be carried out on them until their ownership was traced and their future secured. 

After some research, communication was established with Sir Ian Grabiner of the Arcadia Group, leading to the generous gift from the company that has allowed them to join the academy’s collection.

Having had no representation by the artist, this masterwork by Robert Burns is one of the most significant acquisitions from the arts and crafts movement to enter the collection. 

They were shown in their entirety at Ages of Wonder in 2017 for the first time since 1986. Returned to their former glory through funding from the Pilgrim Trust and the Friends of the RSA.