Reverend Robert Walker ice skating

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Rev. Robert Walker ice skating (attributed to Henry Raeburn or Henri-Pierre Danloux)
Rev. Robert Walker ice skating
Attributed to Henry Raeburn or Henri-Pierre Danloux , 1790s
Oil on canvas
76.2 × 63.5 cm
Scottish National Gallery

The Rev. Robert Walker Skating ( The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch or The Skating Minister for short ) is an oil painting in the Scottish National Gallery in Edinburgh . The picture is unsigned and undated, the authorship therefore unsecured. For some decades it was, with some doubts, attributed to the Scottish painter Sir Henry Raeburn (1756–1823), meanwhile the French Henri-Pierre Danloux (1753–1809) , who lived in England and Scotland in the 1790s, is being discussed as an author.

It was virtually unknown until 1949, when it was auctioned by Scotland. Today it is one of Scotland's best known paintings and is considered an icon of Scottish culture , painted during one of the most significant periods in the country's history, the Scottish Enlightenment .

Reverend Robert Walker

The churchman portrayed in the painting is Reverend Robert Walker. He was a pastor for the Church of Scotland and was born on April 30, 1755 in Monkton , Ayrshire . When he was a child, his father was a minister to the Scots Kirk in Rotterdam , so young Robert almost certainly learned to skate on the frozen canals of the Netherlands . He was licensed by the Presbytery of Edinburgh in 1770 at the age of fifteen. He married Jean Fraser in 1778 and had 5 children. In 1779 he became a member of the Royal Company of Archers and in 1798 their chaplain.

He was both the pastor of Canongate Kirk and a member of the Edinburgh Skating Society , the oldest ice skating club in Britain. There were a number of particularly cold winters in Scotland in the 1780s, causing the lakes to freeze over. The club members met on Duddingston Loch , as shown in the painting, or on Lochend Loch northeast between Edinburgh and Leith when these lakes were frozen accordingly.

The picture

The painting is surprising and extraordinary in that it captures a brief moment of movement; There is also a fine sense of humor over the presentation. To become a member of the ice skating club, you had to drive a circle on one leg. The picture seems to show Walker doing this task, he is standing on his left leg, the right one is splayed backwards, the upper body is tilted slightly forward. He is shown from the side strictly in profile, his face flushed from the cold, his arms crossed over his chest, all in black and with a hat; a small correction can be seen in the detail of the hat. The coat blows slightly in the airstream and there are tracks on the ice. In the background gray, slightly rosy clouds.

Esaias van de Velde : Joy in Ice on Wallgraben , 1618, Alte Pinakothek , Munich

The picture motif is unusual in this form as a portrait, although there are models of people skating from the Dutch genre painting . As is usually the case in portraits, the background is of secondary importance, but the implied landscape, together with the facial expression and the person of the Reverend, contribute to a certain mood that is obviously perceived as typically Scottish to this day.

Attribution debate

The picture emerged from complete oblivion for the first time in 1902 when a restorer pointed out that it needed care. In 1914 Beatrix Scott put it up for sale at Christie's , but it did not reach the price of 1,000 guineas that had been hoped for . In the same year, James Greig was the first to express the idea that the picture could possibly have come from Raeburn.

The attribution of the picture has always been doubtful and has been repeatedly expressed with caution in publications of the National Gallery of Scotland (now Scottish National Gallery) since 1949. In various guides of the gallery it was said, for example, that the picture had " no parallel in Raeburn's work " (" no parallel in Raeburn's work ") and it was viewed as " puzzle painting ". In 1972, when the Gallery published a history of its collection, The Skating Minister was not even mentioned and five years earlier it was described as " in character quite unlike any other known paintings by Raeburn "). In the 1989 museum guide of the National Gallery of Scotland (Scala Books, p. 79) it was said that it was "... an enigmatic picture. It is atypical for the artist (here: Raeburn; author's note. ), in its style, as in its dimensions; it is very possible that it is not from Raeburn ".

During a large Raeburn exhibition in Edinburgh and London 1997–1998, various art connoisseurs noticed that the image of the Skating Minister fell out of the overall work of the Scotsman; Alastair Laing in particular expressed doubts , and Alex Kidson of the renowned Burlington Magazine also said: "It must be said that in this context it doesn't look like a Raeburn at all".

In March 2006, Stephen Lloyd, curator of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery , publicly expressed the thesis that the painting most likely came from the French artist Henri-Pierre Danloux (1753-1809), and not from Sir Henry Raeburn. As soon as this information was available to the gallery, the name tag of the painting was supplemented with the sentence “Recent research has suggested that the picture was actually painted… by Henri-Pierre Danloux”. Since then, the idea has been debated by many people not only among experts but also in the Scottish press. Circles of Scottish society felt in their national pride under attack and the newspaper The Herald asked a headline in the question of whether the painting is a "masterpiece of the great Scottish artist Henry Raeburn or has a rather nice painting by an obscure French". One of the toughest opponents of the ascription to Danloux is Duncan Thomson, former director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery and co-author of a book on the painting.

Arguments in favor of Danloux include: a. the fact that he was in Edinburgh several times in the 1790s, around the time The Skating Minister was written . The canvas and dimensions of the painting are also those of a French painter. Stylistically, the picture also fits in with Danloux's oeuvre without any problems, as does the rather extravagant motif in motion and the representation in profile, while all of these factors are completely atypical for Raeburn. Olivier Meslay, curator of the Louvre , specialist in British painting and for Henri-Pierre Danloux, says that the only thing that is not typical of Danloux is the "emptiness" in the background.

Raeburn's supporters speculate that, unlike usual, he did not paint this picture on commission, but "for his own pleasure" - a theory that cannot be proven, as there is no information whatsoever about the creation of the picture. Another argument is that Raeburn never made any preparatory drawings and therefore had to make corrections again and again. In this painting, for example, this happened on the hat, and thus an indication of Raeburn's authorship. In truth, this is also no evidence for Raeburn, because corrections were also made to her pictures by other painters.

Despite ongoing controversy over the attribution, the painting was sent to New York City in 2006 for Tartan Day , a major Scottish celebration. It was a momentous event and showed that the painting was still seen by those responsible as a vital part of Scottish culture, and possibly still as the work of a Scotsman.

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  1. ↑ a b 100 masterpieces from the great museums of the world, Edwin Mullins, p. 87.
  2. ↑ a b c 100 masterpieces from the great museums of the world, Edwin Mullins, p. 89.
  3. ↑ "The Skating Minister: enduring masterpiece by the great Scottish artist Henry Raeburn, or just a rather nice painting by an obscure Frenchman? As the controversy rages on over the authorship of a national icon, Alan Taylor attempts to untangle the myster", in : The Herald , online August 7, 2005 , last viewed September 2, 2018.
  4. ↑ "The Skating Minister: enduring masterpiece by the great Scottish artist Henry Raeburn, or just a rather nice painting by an obscure Frenchman? ...", in: The Herald , August 7, 2005, online , last seen on September 2 2018.
  5. ^ "Le guide du musée de 1989 (The National Gallery of Scotland, Scala Books, p. 79) indique déjà: 'Le Patineur est au contraire un tableau énigmatique. Il est atypique de l'artiste dans son style comme dans ses dimensions; il est tout à fait possible qu'il ne soit pas de Raeburn. '"Quotation from:" Le Patineur d'Henry Raeburn, une icône de l'art écossais, serait un tableau d'Henri-Pierre Danloux ", in: La Tribune de l'art , March 9, 2005, archive online , last viewed September 2, 2018.
  6. ^ "Le Patineur d'Henry Raeburn, une icône de l'art écossais, serait un tableau d'Henri-Pierre Danloux", in: La Tribune de l'art , March 9, 2005, archive online , last seen on 2. September 2018.
  7. ↑ "It has to be said that in the company it keeps here, it does not look like a Raeburn at all." in: "The Skating Minister: enduring masterpiece by the great Scottish artist Henry Raeburn, or just a rather nice painting by an obscure Frenchman? ...", in: The Herald , August 7, 2005, online , last seen on August 2 , 2005 . September 2018.
  8. ↑ "The Skating Minister: enduring masterpiece by the great Scottish artist Henry Raeburn, or just a rather nice painting by an obscure Frenchman? ...", in: The Herald , August 7, 2005, online , last seen on September 2 2018.
  9. ↑ "The Skating Minister: enduring masterpiece by the great Scottish artist Henry Raeburn, or just a rather nice painting by an obscure Frenchman? ...", in: The Herald , August 7, 2005, online , last seen on September 2 2018.
  10. ^ "Le Patineur d'Henry Raeburn, une icône de l'art écossais, serait un tableau d'Henri-Pierre Danloux", in: La Tribune de l'art , March 9, 2005, archive online , last seen on 2. September 2018.
  11. ^ "Le Patineur d'Henry Raeburn, une icône de l'art écossais, serait un tableau d'Henri-Pierre Danloux", in: La Tribune de l'art , March 9, 2005, archive online , last seen on 2. September 2018.
  12. ↑ 100 masterpieces from the great museums of the world, Edwin Mullins, p. 90.
  13. ↑ "The Skating Minister: enduring masterpiece by the great Scottish artist Henry Raeburn, or just a rather nice painting by an obscure Frenchman? ...", in: The Herald , August 7, 2005, online , last seen on September 2 2018.