The Skating Minister by Henry Raeburn | National Galleries of Scotland, Edinburgh

Hi everyone and welcome back to my channel. I'm Georgina and this is Art History Girl. Today we're looking at Scotland's greatest masterpiece, The Skating Minister. This painting was bought by the National Gallery of Scotland in 1949 and it's a portrait of the Reverend Robert Walker, who lived and worked in Edinburgh. Not only is it considered the most famous work by Henry Rayburn, it's also seen as one of the best known Scottish paintings. But in 2005 this painting was thrown into the limelight and there was actually some debate over who painted the work. Was this very Scottish painting really painted by Henry Rayburn? Or was it actually painted by a Frenchman? The Skating Minister is a very unusual image. Here we have a man with a ruddy complexion, dressed in black and set against the blurry grey mountains. And the man skates with both arms folded across his chest as he glides across the ice. One art historian, Andrew Graham Dixon wrote, The pinkish grey crags and sky have been painted with great freedom, whereas the figure of the Reverend Robert Walker himself is so tightly drawn and painted that he appears almost as a black silhouette against an icy, vaporous wilderness. Perhaps this was the artist's way of suggesting that, for all his apparent propriety and self-restraint, the minister was at heart something of a romantic, a man at any rate with a penchant for communing with nature. Most art historians agree that this is a portrait of the minister, the Reverend Robert Walker, which his family members said when they saw the painting at auction. And they think this because there was another portrait of the man, which shows a very similar side profile to the skating minister. And this one was by the miniature painter and caricaturist John Kay. The wig he's wearing in the etching would have been considered archaic in the late 18th century, but it was still commonly worn in Scotland by professional men like ministers, doctors and lawyers. The sitter also seems to be in his late 30s, which was the age of Walker at that time, so it fits perfectly. The Reverend Robert Walker actually sounds like he'd have been a very interesting man if you were to bump into him in 18th century Scotland. He was born in Moncton, a village in Ayrshire, and he was the son of the Reverend William Walker, who was appointed to the Scots Church in Rotterdam. This meant that Robert grew up in the Netherlands, where his father was working, and it means that, as a boy, it's extremely likely he learnt how to skate there. The painting of the skating minister possibly shows Walker's ties with the Netherlands intentionally. This painting is slightly reminiscent of 17th century Dutch artworks, like those of Henrik Averkamp. When he became an adult, Walker decided to follow his father into the ministry, and in 1770, he was licensed by the Presbytery of Edinburgh. He got a few promotions in his career, until in 1784, he was given a very important job. He was made the senior minister of the parish of Canongate by George III. This was a prestigious post because it included the Palace of Holyrood, which was the royal family's official residence when they were in Scotland. Walker not only had a great career, he also took part in a number of clubs and societies in Edinburgh, so he was clearly quite a prominent figure in Edinburgh's social scene. One of the groups he was heavily involved in was the Edinburgh Skating Society, and he was even part of the club's council for several years. Skating had been organised by the club informally since the late 1750s, and became a more formal arrangement in 1778. To become a member, you had to be elected, which made membership very exclusive, and at that time, it was a men-only club, and most of the members were local aristocracy and the landed gentry, but some of them were also among the professional classes of the city, so mostly lawyers, but there were also some military officers, academics and merchants. This exclusivity was emphasised by the fact that all of the club's members had to buy a silver medal, which they were expected to wear around their necks whilst practising. So maybe not the most practical piece of sporting kit, but that's what they wore. This marked them out as a special club, but it also was a bit of a boast, because silver would have been unaffordable for most people in 18th century Edinburgh. While Robert Walker was part of the club, one side of the medal was engraved with the member's name, and the other side engraved with crossed skates, and the club's Latin motto, Swifter than the East Wind, which was a quotation from the Roman poet Horace. So again, that was another reference to the group's classical education and superiority. But in 1815, after the skating minister was completed, it's quite possible the design was changed to echo Robert Walker's stance in the painting. James Simpson, who was then the secretary and treasurer, recorded the new design in the Society's Minutes. He wrote, The emblem is an infant mercury, with a winged cap and feet, in the same attitude in his flight as that of the outage skating, displaying a scroll over his head with the old motto of the club, Occhio Euro, from Horace. The figure does not represent actual skating, but only allegorises its qualities of swift, easy and graceful movements. The natural, unconstrained grace of infancy was considered as a more appropriate emblem of these qualities than the common figure of mercury. And even later, in 1841, a new design was commissioned, which was adapted from the sculpture of mercury by Gian Bologna. And this dynamic pose, with one leg trailing behind him, was known in the skating circles as the Flying Mercury. As you can see, this position is very similar to Walker's, although his trailing leg is more extended, and this movement shows he's moving at a faster pace. Although the Skating Minister was painted in the 1790s, it stayed within Robert Walker's family for over 100 years, until it emerged from obscurity in the early 20th century. The painting had been sold at auction in 1926 by Beatrix Scott, the great-granddaughter of Robert Walker. Beatrix Scott wrote a statement to accompany the painting. She wrote that the painting was of her great-grandfather, and that it had been painted by Henry Rayburn, the famous 18th century portraitist. Henry Rayburn was the most famous Scottish portrait painter of the 18th century, and he painted all of the rich and important Scots living around that time. At the age of 15, he had been a goldsmith's apprentice, and he soon started producing miniature portraits as part of his apprenticeship. They were often fixed into jewellery. Rayburn proved a very successful miniaturist, and he was soon commissioned to paint oil paintings, something he received no formal training for. The goldsmith he was working for introduced him to David Martin, who was the leading portrait painter in Edinburgh, and Martin lent him some portraits to copy, so that was the full extent of his training. Soon he became good enough to devote himself completely to portrait painting, and stopped working as a goldsmith's apprentice. So George Chalmers is his earliest known portrait. In his early 20s, Rayburn met a young woman in a field when he was sketching nature, and he was asked to paint her picture. She was called Anne Edgar of Bridgelands, and she was from a very extremely wealthy family, and they were soon married. Anne brought with her a pretty healthy fortune, but Rayburn didn't become lazy with this newfound wealth. It actually encouraged him to become more educated about painting, and pursue his passion. It was extremely common for artists in the 18th century to visit Italy, and study the great masters, so Rayburn decided to go there with his wife. Beforehand he went to London, and was well received by Sir Joshua Reynolds, the President of the Royal Academy. Reynolds advised him what to study in Rome. Apparently he recommended studying the works of Michelangelo, and he gave Rayburn letters for introduction in Italy. In Rome, Rayburn met many other British artists, including an antique dealer called Byers, who told him never copy an object from memory, but always paint or draw from real life. After two years of study in Italy, he returned to Edinburgh in 1787, and began a successful career as a portrait painter. In that year he completed a portrait of the Second Lord President Dundas, a famous Scottish judge. And as Rayburn progressed through his career, he became clearly more confident, although his early work still had a lot of character. Here are some examples of his early work, compared to his later work. And as I said previously, Rayburn painted all of the good and the great of Edinburgh, and he was probably quite a well-known figure himself, having made so many elite connections. People used to say about him, he would never take him for a painter, till he seizes the brush and palette. Apart from himself, Rayburn painted only two artists, one of whom was Sir Francis Legate Chantry. It has been discovered quite recently that Rayburn and Chantry were close friends, and that Rayburn took a lot of care when painting the sculptor. It's commonly believed that Rayburn was less good, however, at painting women, but this full-length image of his wife would suggest otherwise. He also completed some cracking paintings of Mrs. R. Scott Moncrief and Mrs. Robert Bell. Rayburn spent his entire life, really, in Edinburgh, and he very rarely visited London, and when he did, it was for only very short periods of time. So this probably contributed to his unique style, because he had very limited outside influences. In 1812, he was elected president of the Society of Artists in Edinburgh, and even before this, he's been recognised as the leading portrait painter in Scotland, and he greatly influenced the young artists around him. Rayburn also received a knighthood in 1822, from George IV, when he visited Scotland, and then he died, unfortunately, the following year. In 2005, the Scottish National Portrait Gallery became divided when one of the senior curators started doubting if the skating minister had been painted by Rayburn. Stephen Lloyd said the painter's identity might have been confused over time, partly because there was a really strong market for Rayburn paintings between 1900 and 1930. That was because the British art dealer, Joseph Duveen, started selling paintings from British artists to an American market. Reynolds, Gainsborough, Romney, Rayburn and Lawrence were all part of the Duveen phenomenon. On the flip side, it's been argued that it's unlikely Beatrix Scott, the skating minister's great-granddaughter, got confused, because her mother inherited the portrait from her grandmother, Robert Walker's widow. And this was a fairly direct connection, so it's unlikely the story had been told inaccurately. At auction, the skating minister has a history of reaching very low prices. Stephen Lloyd wrote that this shows the art market had little confidence the work was by Rayburn. Beatrix Scott sold the painting to a woman called Mrs Lucy Hume in 1924 for £700, which was pretty cheap for a Rayburn. She tried to sell it ten years earlier, but the bids didn't meet the reserve price, so it was an unsuccessful sale. Sir Alec Martin, who worked for Christie's, wrote, Rayburn portraits were then beginning to realise high prices, but a portrait was then what was wanted and not a sporting subject by him. And the Scottish National Portrait Gallery bought him in 1949 for £525, so again, pretty cheap. It's debatable whether Rayburn painted the skating minister, but what's not debatable was that he was a friend of the family. In the Reverend Robert Walker's will, written in 1798, he named nine men as trustees, one of which is Henry Rayburn, portrait painter of Edinburgh. The document also listed Walker's movable property, which he left to his son John. It included the minister's silver plate, bed, table, linen, books, manuscripts, volume of sermons, writing desk with 12 drawers, archer's bow, an arrow and a watch. And although we can't be certain when the skating minister was painted, it's estimated to be roughly 1795. So it seems slightly strange that it wasn't mentioned in his will at all. Skeptic Stephen Lloyd certainly thinks this is fishy. Lloyd says plenty of people in the past have been sceptical that Rayburn painted the skating minister. During a Rayburn exhibition in London and Edinburgh, it was noted that the skating minister was different to the rest of Rayburn's work in its style, paint handling and compositional format. In a review, Alex Kidson wrote, It has to be said that in the company it keeps here, it does not look right as a Rayburn at all. That fine craquelure that covers its surface is nowhere to be seen in any of its immediate neighbours. Craquelure is where the paint surface is cracked, leaving fine lines all over the canvas. And it was very common in 18th century French paintings. They had these cracked surfaces because the style was to paint with thick, stiff layers of paint, which were prone to cracking over time. Stephen Lloyd says because the skating minister has craquelure, it's likely to have been painted by the French artist Henri-Pierre Donlu, who visited Scotland for extended periods in the 1790s. So who was this Henri-Pierre Donlu, who might have painted the skating minister? Stephen Lloyd says if Rayburn is to be discounted as the painter of the skating minister, there are no other Scottish artists who would have been capable of creating such a sophisticated painting in the 1790s. And these are the reasons he gives. The portrait artist, David Martin, who lent Rayburn those portraits to copy back in the day, he apparently was worse than Rayburn and his career was coming to an end around that time. The group portrait artists, David Allen and Alexander Naismith, both painted figures which were quite awkward in their landscapes. And Naismith was mostly doing landscapes by this point anyway. The only good artist, according to Lloyd, someone who compared well to Rayburn, was the pastel artist, Skirving. He was heavily influenced by the French neoclassical portraiture. As I said, he wasn't a painter. He was a pastel artist and therefore he didn't paint the skating minister. So this is where Don Lue comes in. Don Lue was by far the most important artist to make prolonged visits to Edinburgh during the 1790s. He travelled there to paint the portraits of the French royal family, particularly Louis XVI's brother, the Comte d'Artois, who was exiled after the French Revolution and living in the Palace of Holyrood. Don Lue had become his career as the apprentice to several high-profile artists and one of his teachers, Joseph-Marie Vienne, was made director of the Académie de France in Rome and Don Lue followed him there. This means that he had a very academic background compared to Rayburn, who was largely self-taught. Don Lue became friends with the neoclassical painter Jacques-Louis David while he was there, but they fell out over money and Don Lue eventually returned to Paris. So after several years of moving between Lyon and Italy, it became apparent that he wasn't welcome in France anymore because most of his clients had been people from aristocratic circles and the French Revolution was well underway. So he exhibited in the Salon of 1791 and the following year he emigrated to London. When he got to London, Don Lue took a studio in central London and he exhibited at the Royal Academy between 1792 and 1796. He was extremely prolific, showing over 20 portraits and one subject painting within that time. Something he was particularly good at was assimilating, or copying, other popular artists' style, which meant he was able to produce very desirable paintings without too much difficulty. One of his best-known works is this painting of the emigrated courtesan Catherine Rosalie Gerard, who had the Comte d'Artois as one of her lovers. Don Lue has shown her here as an allegorical image of hope, looking out to sea at a departing ship. She turns the viewer with her right leg extended behind her, which is fairly similar to Robert Walker's pose in The Skating Minister. Something that's worth noting is that the majority of Rayburn's portrait works are extremely static. In most of them, people he paints are either sitting down or standing still. When the Comte d'Artois first arrived in Edinburgh, Don Lue was summoned from London to paint the French royal family. His first visit was in September 1796, and then he was a frequent visitor in the following years. The Scottish nobility welcomed the French royals enthusiastically, especially Lord Adam Gordon, who was the governor of Edinburgh Castle and the general of the British forces in Scotland. Don Lue made a small portrait of Gordon, which is unfinished, and was probably meant to be engraved. He also painted two other Scottish military heroes. The painting of Viscount Keith is a painting based on Copley's style, and as I said previously, Don Lue was very good at assimilating other people's works, which we can see here. Don Lue was also influenced by Copley in his depiction of Adam Duncan, and both these portraits show a strong interest in painting moving figures. This is particularly notable in the Duncan portrait, when an officer to the left of the admiral is using a speaking trumpet to order about the men in the rigging. He is balancing on one foot in the flying mercury pose, which is very similar to the skating minister. In 1799, Don Lue was commissioned by the Earl of Dalkeith to paint two portraits of sergeants from the Dumfriesshire militia. In both of these works, Don Lue shows the soldiers in active poses. Stephenson is aiming a musket, and Mather is holding a pike with one foot in the air. So who does that remind you of? Stephen Lloyd says that because Robert Walker was the senior minister of Holyrood Palace, he would have known Don Lue through his royal connections. He also argues that the academic style of the painting, the craquelure and the balletic poses are all distinguishing features of Don Lue, and it's for those reasons he believes the Frenchman painted the skating minister. He says Don Lue was so good at painting moving figures, it's likely Robert Walker would have asked him to paint him, to show off his skating expertise and make him look as good as possible. But this is only one side of the argument. The other side believes Rayburn did paint the skating minister, and here's why. The skating minister's hat has clearly been redrawn and repainted, because the original version pokes out of the canvas. Duncan Thompson, a former director of the Scottish National Portrait Gallery, says the fact the artist has decided to change the composition slightly shows it was Rayburn. Remember, Rayburn was considered a spontaneous, unpremeditated kind of artist, never having had a formal education, whereas Don Lue had a more organised approach. The other thing is that Rayburn used thin layers of paint to build up colour, which would have caused this transparency and allowed the hat to peek through after all these years. Don Lue, on the other hand, was a bit like a teenage girl who puts on foundation with a trowel. Well, not quite, but you know what I mean, he used much thicker paint. Another striking feature in the painting is the way the grooves in the ice have been made. To make them seem like skating tracks, the wrong end of a paintbrush has been dragged through the wet paint to make them seem realistic. And this is one detail I love, because it's almost 100 years ahead of its time, and something you could imagine the Impressionists doing in the late 19th century. Rayburn used this method on several occasions, and you can see it here in this portrait of Dr Nathaniel Spenz. Here the feathers in Spenz's bonnets have been scored to show their particular texture. Duncan Thompson also points out that the landscape in The Skating Minister is very vague, and Rayburn himself was quoted as pretty much saying exactly that. He said, The landscape in this painting is so vague, in fact, that art historians always argue where this painting is meant to be set, and which mountains are behind the minister. Don Lue, on the other hand, paints extremely detailed pictures. He also adds shadows to his work, which we can see in this portrait of Baron de Bessevel. He's included some shadows on the floor by the man's foot and the nearest chair leg to give the image some depth. But there's no true attempt at creating depth through shadows in The Skating Minister. At best, there's a half-hearted attempt to reflect the hills on the left with a brown colour, which gets a bit mixed into the ice. There are some details in The Skating Minister that are so precise and detailed that they make it an outstanding piece of work. The brown leather straps and pink inkle cords that bind Walker's shoes to the skates are very detailed, which possibly points to Rayburn's former life as a miniaturist. Thompson says, Although he's known best for his bold, huge portraits, this level of finesse shows he's still able to paint intricate detail. Also, in Nathaniel Sven's portrait, the tongs on his glove have incredible detail, and you can see the ribbon getting smaller as they pass through the archer's fingers. Thompson says it's also worth looking at how each painter creates flesh tones. Walker's face is very typical of Rayburn's other images. Again, it seems like his ruddy, Scottish complexion has been built up through several layers of paint, probably using a red glaze on top of a yellowish-white glaze. He's got a similar complexion to these Rayburn portraits, whereas Don Liu prefers to model flesh colours by mixing different shades of colour and then applying them to the canvas. There we go, that's my video on The Skating Minister. I really hope you enjoyed it. Please comment below whether you think it was Rayburn or Don Liu who painted the portrait, and also comment if you think it was someone else entirely, you might have an artist in mind. So that's all for now, I'll see you next time.