The Reverend Robert Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch (The Skating Minister)

Look at the contrast between the sober, tightly painted figure and the loose, almost abstract landscape. The face is finished with real care, the pink ribbon on the skate is a tiny flash of colour, and the ice under the blade is scratched with a few quick strokes that give the whole image its sense of motion. The pose is a textbook skating figure of the period, the travelling position, and the silhouette reads instantly even from across the room.

The painting stayed with the Walker family until the National Gallery bought it in 1949, and for decades nobody paid it much attention. Only in the later twentieth century did it become famous, reproduced on posters, biscuit tins and book covers. In 2005 a curator argued that it was not by Raeburn at all but by the French artist Henri Pierre Danloux, who was in Edinburgh in the 1790s; most specialists now accept it as Raeburn, but the debate is a reminder that even icons keep their secrets. Whatever the hand, the minister remains one of the most loved images in Scottish art.

Did You Know? The Edinburgh Skating Club required new members to skate a full circle on each foot and then jump over three hats piled on the ice.