Robert Burns junior by J Copland

An small oil painting of Robert Burns' eldest son, Robert Burns in later life.   Robert Burns first met his wife, Jean Armour in Mauchline in 1784 shortly after his family moved to the farm of Mossgiel close to the town. The date of their marriage is unclear and their relationship was opposed by her parents, but on the third of September 1776 she gave birth to twins, Robert and Jean.   His twin sister died in infancy and by the time of his father's death in 1796 Robert Burns junior was the eldest of a family of five surviving children. He was educated at Dumfries Grammar School and at Glasgow and Edinburgh University. He obtained a position in the Stamp Office in London offered to him by the Prime Minister and retired to Dumfries in 1833.   He tried his hand at writing verse but did not demonstrate his father's genius. In some accounts of his life he is presented as a rather dissipate figure, trading on his father's memory. This portrait was most probably painted in Dumfries after his return there, it is by  J Copland, a local artist about whom little is known.