Henry Raeburn’s portrait of the Rev Robert Walker in black hat and coat skating on Duddingston Loch in about 1795. Robert Walker (1755 - 1808) was minister of the Canongate Kirk and a member of the Edinburgh Skating Society. The club usually met at Duddingston on the outskirts of Edinburgh. The story tells that the Rev grew up in the Netherlands, where he leaned to skate on ice. When he returned to Scotland, he participated in the founding of the first figure skating club of the world. In the painting, we see the Reverend sliding gracefully and effortless over the ice. The portrait is a metaphor for the Scottish Enlightenment. The confident grace of the Rev Walker as he slides with perfect control across a slippery sheet of frozen water expresses through his wintry flight the triumph of reason, which paved the way for new thinking in science and politics and economics. The mountains beyond look truly bleak and terrible but the skating minister floats in joy, taking his exercise with perfect poise. The Minister on the Loch is also a 3 couple Strathspey. It can be seen being danced here youtube/watch?v=kJZJLlJvnaQ
Posted on: Sun, 20 Jul 2014 02:23:53 +0000
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