The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch, better known by its shorter title The Skating Minister, is an oil painting by Sir Henry Raeburn in the National Gallery of Scotland in Edinburgh. It was practically unknown until about 1949; today, however, it is one of Scotland’s best known paintings. It is considered an icon of Scottish culture, painted during one of the most remarkable periods in the country’s history, the Scottish Enlightenment.
He was minister of the Canongate Kirk as well as being a member of the Edinburgh Skating Club, the first figure skating club in the world. The club met on Duddingston Loch as shown in the painting, or on Lochend loch to its northeast between Edinburgh and leith, when these lochs were suitably frozen.