Finger of a Frenchman

Celebrating five centuries of the artistic bond between Scotland and France, these poems are portraits of artists and reflections on art. In this work, Jean-Jacques Rousseau irritates his portrait painter Allan Ramsay; John Acheson, Master of the Scottish Mint, takes Mary, Queen of Scots' portrait for the Scottish coinage; and Esther Inglis paints the first self-portrait by a Scottish artist. A reflection on the nature of a "collection," this analytic consideration not only features paintings hanging in Scotland's major galleries, but also explores the rapport between art and poetry.

David Kinloch is the senior lecturer in the department of English studies at the University of Strathclyde and is the cofounder of the poetry magazine Verse. He is the author of Un Tour d’Ecosse and In my Father’s House and the recipient of the Robert Louis Stevenson Memorial Award.