The Skating Minister (The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch) 1784

Henry Raeburn’s painting shows the Reverend Robert Walker skating on Duddingston Loch, near Edinburgh, some time around the late 1700s. The painting is striking for its unusual informality. It represents a man of the cloth engaged in leisure. It’s no accident that Raeburn painted the Scottish elite, as he was sustained by their patronage. But the Scottish Enlightenment valued the individual, regardless of class or title, and celebrated both reason and the natural world. This explains the minister’s dynamic pose and the attention to the landscape. The image may seem like a straightforward depiction, but our understanding of it is affected by a number of things: the history of portraiture, the sitter’s social status, and the philosophical trends of the time. To get a handle on all of these factors, we have to look outside the frame to the social conditions that made the work possible. We must consult a range of sources to arrive at an informed interpretation.