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The Skating Minister: The Story Behind the Painting
Henry Raeburn's painting of his friend the Reverend Robert Walker skating on a hard winter's day more than two centuries ago is one of that select number of paintings, like Leonardo's 'Mona Lisa' or Munch's 'The Scream', that is immediately recognisable. It is also one of the best-loved paintings in the Scottish national collection. But who was 'the skating minister' and why did Scotland's premier portrait painter portray him in such an extraordinary way?
This book explores the relationship between artist and sitter, the time they lived in, the many famous people they knew, and the reason why this intimate portrait has acquired such iconic status.
This book explores the relationship between artist and sitter, the time they lived in, the many famous people they knew, and the reason why this intimate portrait has acquired such iconic status.
64 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 2004
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
December 20, 2024
What an intriguing book. The authors set out to find out more about the two personalities involved, Henry Raeburn the artist and Robert Walker the skating Reverend, to discover how they got to know each other and then, the most difficult of the three, how the portrait of Walker comes to be when he is skating. They succeed in the first two objectives but the third proved to be much more elusive and as the authors state in the final paragraph of the book, 'Henry Raeburn, the painter, and Robert Walker, the minister, would no doubt be amazed at these attempts to work out the story behind the painting - for they knew the truth!'
Be that as it may, the 'Skating Minister' has become an iconic painting as with an intimacy rare in portrait painting, the authors acknowledge that 'they have left for our enjoyment a picture of wit and beauty that, while it intrigues, expresses a well-being of the spirit'. They add, appropriately, 'he [Walker] skates on in grace, as if he is still with us'.
Of the two protagonists Henry Raeburn was the better known, being the premier portrait painter of Scotland while Robert Walker, son of a parish minister, moved away from his birthplace of Monckton in Ayrshire when he was five years old as his father was appointed to a vacancy in the Scottish church in Rotterdam. Thus his future interest in Dutch affairs was formed and as a result he later wrote 'Observations on the National Character of the Dutch, and the Family Character of the House of Orange'.
And after returning to Scotland and studying at the University of Edinburgh he was appointed to Cramond Kirk, some six miles north west of Edinburgh. Subsequently he was elected to two associations, the Royal Company of Archers and the Edinburgh Skating Society. He progressed in his professional life, too, and was appointed senior minister at the Canongate Kirk. In this post he got to know many leading men of the day, including Sir Walter Scott. Such men of genius were part of the everyday society in which Robert spent his life. And this was how he got to know Henry Raeburn.
Raeburn, a year younger than Walker, became firm friends with Walker and both men were 'men of great vigour'. They were known to walk together 'round the looming Arthur's Seat to the frozen loch at Duddingston. By then skating had become a fashionable sport in Scotland and the Society placed great emphasis on 'good fellowship and mutual admiration'. But Walker preferred to skate alone.
And having learnt that, there is no proof that Raeburn ever joined him in his skating although it is admitted that for the artist to paint a portrait with the subject in profile was most unusual and the mechanics of how he achieved that is discussed at length in the book. Raeburn did, however, make a wax model of himself in profile before James Tassie produced it as a casting and it is acknowledged that the two portraits, of Raeburn and the skating minister, 'have a perfect, matching artistry'.
Interestingly the painting itself was virtually unknown until as late as 1949 and it was not reproduced in any of the early books on Raeburn and was not reproduced when it first appeared at an auction house in London in March 1914 when Christie's expected to get at least 1,000 guineas for it. It did not sell and the owner, one Beatrix Scott, a family relative of Walker, sold it privately in 1926 for £700. Subsequently it was acquired for the nation by the National Gallery of Scotland who paid a modest £525 for it. At that time Christie's produced a photograph of it, the first of many millions of reproductions in a whole variety of forms ... the Presbyterian minister was skating 'into time and history'!
And this book, reading at times like a detective novel, pieces together the intriguing story as best it can in what is an excellent read.
Be that as it may, the 'Skating Minister' has become an iconic painting as with an intimacy rare in portrait painting, the authors acknowledge that 'they have left for our enjoyment a picture of wit and beauty that, while it intrigues, expresses a well-being of the spirit'. They add, appropriately, 'he [Walker] skates on in grace, as if he is still with us'.
Of the two protagonists Henry Raeburn was the better known, being the premier portrait painter of Scotland while Robert Walker, son of a parish minister, moved away from his birthplace of Monckton in Ayrshire when he was five years old as his father was appointed to a vacancy in the Scottish church in Rotterdam. Thus his future interest in Dutch affairs was formed and as a result he later wrote 'Observations on the National Character of the Dutch, and the Family Character of the House of Orange'.
And after returning to Scotland and studying at the University of Edinburgh he was appointed to Cramond Kirk, some six miles north west of Edinburgh. Subsequently he was elected to two associations, the Royal Company of Archers and the Edinburgh Skating Society. He progressed in his professional life, too, and was appointed senior minister at the Canongate Kirk. In this post he got to know many leading men of the day, including Sir Walter Scott. Such men of genius were part of the everyday society in which Robert spent his life. And this was how he got to know Henry Raeburn.
Raeburn, a year younger than Walker, became firm friends with Walker and both men were 'men of great vigour'. They were known to walk together 'round the looming Arthur's Seat to the frozen loch at Duddingston. By then skating had become a fashionable sport in Scotland and the Society placed great emphasis on 'good fellowship and mutual admiration'. But Walker preferred to skate alone.
And having learnt that, there is no proof that Raeburn ever joined him in his skating although it is admitted that for the artist to paint a portrait with the subject in profile was most unusual and the mechanics of how he achieved that is discussed at length in the book. Raeburn did, however, make a wax model of himself in profile before James Tassie produced it as a casting and it is acknowledged that the two portraits, of Raeburn and the skating minister, 'have a perfect, matching artistry'.
Interestingly the painting itself was virtually unknown until as late as 1949 and it was not reproduced in any of the early books on Raeburn and was not reproduced when it first appeared at an auction house in London in March 1914 when Christie's expected to get at least 1,000 guineas for it. It did not sell and the owner, one Beatrix Scott, a family relative of Walker, sold it privately in 1926 for £700. Subsequently it was acquired for the nation by the National Gallery of Scotland who paid a modest £525 for it. At that time Christie's produced a photograph of it, the first of many millions of reproductions in a whole variety of forms ... the Presbyterian minister was skating 'into time and history'!
And this book, reading at times like a detective novel, pieces together the intriguing story as best it can in what is an excellent read.
May 13, 2020
The Skating Minister: The Story Behind the Painting by Duncan Thompson and Lynne Gladstone-Miller (The National Galleries of Scotland and the National Museum of Scotland 2004)(759.2911) is the story of how the famous and much beloved painting of the Reverend Robert Walker on ice skates by Scots painter Henry Raeburn came to hang in the Scottish National Gallery. I saw this painting this summer in Edinburgh and was hugely drawn to it. The subject and the subject matter seemed to me to be either the height of incongruity or the pinnacle of whimsy. Imagine my surprise when I later learned that this painting is known and adored by the people of Scotland. My rating: 7/10, finished 8/20/13.
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