The Rev. Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch

The Rev. Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch, painting created in about 1795 by Scottish portraitist Sir Henry Raeburn that has become one of the best known and most iconic artworks in the National Galleries of Scotland. The painting, often called The Skating Minister, is a departure from Raeburn’s usual work but still exhibits his great skill.

It depicts the clergyman Robert Walker (1755–1808), who was attached to Canongate Church in Edinburgh and later became chaplain to the Royal Company of Archers. A writer and a sportsman, Walker had been a member of the Edinburgh Skating Club, the world’s first figure skating club, since 1780. The club often gathered for skating on Duddingston Loch. In Raeburn’s picture, Walker is shown with his arms folded across his chest, which a contemporary treatise on skating described as the “proper attitude for genteel rolling.” The portrait demonstrates Raeburn’s fondness for ingenious lighting effects: the minister’s face is shown in strict profile and the figure is virtually depicted as a silhouette, outlined against the pale, cloudy sky and the indistinct landscape. These broad masses contrast sharply with a number of fine details, such as the ribbons on the skates and the delicate tracery of skate-marks on the ice.

The painting remained with Walker’s family until well into the 20th century, and the National Galleries of Scotland acquired it at auction in 1949. It was another 25 years, however, before The Skating Minister began to achieve its current level of popularity.