Robert Burns
1869–1941 · Scottish Art Nouveau painter, limner and decorative designer
Robert Burns (Edinburgh, 1869–1941) was a Scottish painter, limner and designer, one of the first exponents of Art Nouveau in Scotland and an outstanding decorative artist. His work joined painting, drawing and applied arts during the Scottish cultural revival of the late nineteenth century.
The son of the photography pioneer Archibald Burns, he trained in Glasgow and then in London. In 1889 he moved to Paris, where he studied for two years at the Académie Delécluse. He was elected president of the Society of Scottish Artists in 1901 and again from 1924 to 1927.
He followed the example of the Arts and Crafts artists, working with a variety of materials to link art, commerce and industry. He contributed illustrations to all four volumes of The Evergreen (1895–1897), published with Patrick Geddes. His Natura Naturans, from 1895, is believed to have influenced Gustav Klimt's Fishblood (1898).
His most complete designs were the interiors of Crawford's Tea Room on Hanover Street, completed in 1926. Between 1908 and 1919 he taught drawing and painting at the Edinburgh College of Art, combining teaching with commercial commissions.