He studied under William Brodie and at the School Board of the Trustees on Picardy Place (run by the trustees of the Royal Scottish Academy). There he won their gold medal for the year in 1875. In 1876 he entered the RSA Life School, focussing upon the human form and won the Stuart Prize in 1880.
In 1881 he is recorded as living with William Geddes at Gowan Brae Cottage, Perth Street, Perth.[2]
He died in Edinburgh in 1888 (several newspapers gave the cause of death as 'congestion of the lungs') and is buried in the north section of the original Dean Cemetery, towards the western end, with his wife Margaret Irving. The red sandstone celtic cross is eroding but has a fine profile head of Burnett, sculpted by John Stevenson Rhind.
Works
Low-relief bronze panels on the base of the statue to the Duke of Buccleuch on the edge of Parliament Square, the first statue on the Royal Mile.
Statues of Davie Deans and Effie Deans (from the novel "The Heart of Midlothian") on the Scott Monument both on the north side, facing Princes Street.[3]