Collections

   

Auld Robin Gray

Artist: Leyde, Otto Theodor, RSA RSW · 1835-1897

Leyde made his reputation as a portraitist, but his Diploma Work is a genre scene based on a Scots Ballad by the poet Lady Anne Lindsay. Inscribed on the reverse of the painting is an extract from this text, which reads "My father urged me sair; my mither didna speak, But she lookit in my face till my heart was like to break." An identically titled work was exhibited at the RSA Annual Exhibition in 1879, catalogue number 313. This work was priced at £80 but was unsold at the end of the exhibition and may be the same piece as the Diploma Work.