As a follow-up to the previous post on the unveiling of the statue at Crusoe Buildings in 1885, here is a little background on the sculptor who created the likeness of 'Robinson Crusoe' in bronze. Note that it was designed to depict the fictional character, as opposed to the real-life Alexander Selkirk (of whom there was no image or likeness in existence). Some visual representation of the character was much desired locally, hence the public movement to raise subscriptions for a monument (although the cost was ultimately met by David Gillies). The motto "Robinson Crusoe now we see, good and great at last" was one of several messages which were displayed on banners at the unveiling event.
Thomas Stuart Burnett was born in Edinburgh in 1853 and was the son of lithographic printer Robert Alexander Burnett and his wife Annie Stuart. Already a sculptor by the age of 18, Burnett studied under William Brodie and was elected an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1883. His other works include a statue of Rob Roy (1885), shown as insert, which is remarkably similar in style to the Crusoe statue; a statue of General Gordon and two small statues on the Scott Monument in Edinburgh.
Burnett died in 1888 at the early age of 34 from pneumonia. He is buried at Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh, alongside wife Margaret Irving. His grave is marked with a Celitc cross which bears an image of his profile, sculpted by John Stevenson Rhind (see below).
Thomas Stuart Burnett was born in Edinburgh in 1853 and was the son of lithographic printer Robert Alexander Burnett and his wife Annie Stuart. Already a sculptor by the age of 18, Burnett studied under William Brodie and was elected an Associate of the Royal Scottish Academy in 1883. His other works include a statue of Rob Roy (1885), shown as insert, which is remarkably similar in style to the Crusoe statue; a statue of General Gordon and two small statues on the Scott Monument in Edinburgh.
Burnett died in 1888 at the early age of 34 from pneumonia. He is buried at Dean Cemetery in Edinburgh, alongside wife Margaret Irving. His grave is marked with a Celitc cross which bears an image of his profile, sculpted by John Stevenson Rhind (see below).
As the Scotsman of 12 December 1885 stated: "The commemoration of great men by the erection of their statues is a custom which has, or recent years, grown into greater favour amongst us". The article points out the challenges to the sculptor's art of the "soot-laden atmosphere of our great cities" and the "difficulty of the costume of the nineteenth century Briton". Yet, it goes on, Mr Burnett had not to contend with either challenge in his Largo commission, given the "pure air of the Fifeshire village" and the "unconventional attire" of the subject. The Crusoe statue would not "come to wear the grimy aspect which soon mars the beauty of most statues".
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