I first saw this painting when I was a university student up in Scotland. When killing time before catching trains south or up to Stirling, I would sometimes visit The National Gallery and this rather quirky picture impressed me though I couldn't explain why.
He's like a silhouette as he moves effortlessly over the ice. He knows how to skate but he's very nonchalant about it. There's something of a tension between the staid formality of his vocation and the freedom of travelling smoothly over a frozen lake. He appears to cast no shadow.
There's a wild and slightly brooding fluidity about the background but Reverend Walker himself is rather statuesque - frozen in that moment.
The picture stayed in Robert Walker's family for over a hundred and fifty years before it was brought to the attention of the public and art historians alike round about 1950. It is now much treasured and the image features on postcards, ceramic mugs, posters, tea towels and T-shirts. The Reverend Robert Walker and Henry Raeburn would have both been astonished.
Duddingston Loch is a small fresh water lake in Edinburgh, close to Holyrood Park. I think the background suggests somewhere more remote than that.
We can‘t always explain why a certain work of art speaks to us (or not), can we. I remember how, as a 13-year-old, I felt strongly attracted to a print at my uncle and aunt‘s house, of The Chocolate Girl (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chocolate_Girl). What first caught my eye was the glass of water, I remember that.
ReplyDeleteWell I was not familiar with "The Chocolate Girl". Thanks for directing me to it.
DeleteHis leg seems to be too far back. Maybe he is skating at high speed. Clearly I know nothing about ice skating and not much more about art.
ReplyDeleteHe is skating in the Dutch "travelling" style. His family lived in The Netherlands for a while.
DeleteI wonder who was the person that first thought a sharp blade attached to the underside of shoes would be a good way to get across the ice? I'm thankful for whoever it was, because I love watching ice dancing on YouTube.
ReplyDeleteI believe it was the Inuits of North America.
DeleteThere are some strange paintings in Scottish galleries. I like "mutton Farquharson". You would have been called "bovine Theasby" if you had been around taking pictures of cows in those days.
ReplyDeleteYou would have been "Changing Room Peephole Dunham".
DeleteThe Reverend decided to get his skates on. He must have been in a rush. I like the painting YP.
ReplyDeleteHe had a sermon to deliver so he had to get his skates on.
DeleteA friend of mine used to have that painting hanging in his bathroom!
ReplyDeleteDid it help him to go?
DeleteAn interesting picture, one I have seen before - or rather a copy in a magazine. Perhaps the painting comes from a time when Ministers didn't skate - it could have been considered ungodly.
ReplyDeleteI believe he learnt to skate in The Netherlands where traditionally it has been a widespread activity in wintertime - at least when the canals freeze!
DeleteIt's almost as if the Reverend were posing against a backdrop.
ReplyDeleteYou're right! I hadn't thought that before.
DeleteI think this is probably the strangest painting I've ever seen........
ReplyDeleteI am glad you have reacted to it Christina.
DeleteSo he took a shortcut across the loch when it was frozen to get to his church or to visit a sick churchgoer of his? He seems so dressed up as tho he is going somewhere important!
ReplyDeleteOddly I have a tie (which I wear frequently) on which he figures profusely.
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