Ice skating in the 18th century
La Hollandoise sur les patins after Cornelis Dusart
Fille de petit bourgois d’Amstredã, gliſant avec des patins by Bernard Picart, c. 1695-1730
Winter by Jan Josef Horemans
View of Gentilly, after 1730
January: skaters on the ice by Jan Caspar Philips
Winter by Nicolas Lancret, 1738
Winter by Nicolas de Larmessin IV, after Nicolas Lancret
Fastening the Skate by Nicolas Lancret
Divertissemens des Hollandois pendant la Gelée
Porcelain figure group with a man and woman putting on skates, c. 1760
Three skaters by Albertus Jacobus Besters
Winter landscape by Rienk Jelgerhuis, 1765
A Swedish skate made c. 1770: “Flat wood platforms, leather heel cups. Solid iron runners with moderate turn-up.”
Skaters (and sled-riding) around Carriage-Ride on the Ice in Des Elementarbuchs für die Jugend illustrated by Daniel Chodowiecki, 1770; this seems to be the basis for a later 18th century illustration of a winter scene with figures on the ice (H/T Paul Dickfoss)
Entries from Philip Vickers Fithian’s journal:
“Mr. Cunningham came before noon to skait — At twelve we all went down to Mr. Carters Millpond — none had skaits but Mr. Cunningham — we diverted ourselves on the Ice til two, when we went up to Dinner.” (January 13, 1774)
“The Parson, Mr. Blain, Cunningham, Ballantine, & others are to come to Captain Turburville’s Mill-Pond to Skate before they go to the Ball.” (January 16, 1774)
Skating in Hyde Park by Samuel Hieronymus Grimm
Skaters on a canal beside a country house by Jan Schoute
A winter scene with figures on the ice
Drawing of a young man skating and another who has just fallen down behind him by John Hamilton Mortimer, c. 1760-1779
Frozen canal with skaters by Cornelis van Noorde, 1769
The IJ in winter with skaters near the Nieuwe Stadsherberg by Hendrik Keun, 1769
Frost fair on a frozen river with ships by Hendrik Kobell, 1773
IJsvermaak in het dorp Kortenhoef by Cornelis van Noorde, 1776
The Pleasures of Skaiting - or, a View in Winter, c. 1780; also in a hand-colored mezzotint
Winter landscape with skaters by Jacob Cats, 1781
The Skater (Portrait of William Grant) by Gilbert Stuart, 1782
Kinders hier hebt gy tot u playsier / Van Jan en Lijs op 't ys vol zwier, c. 1782-1793
Winter scene with a man skating on a frozen lake by David Deuchar, c. 1782-1803
Skating in Hyde Park by Julius Caesar Ibbetson, c. 1785
Study of skaters by Julius Caesar Ibbetson, c. 1785-1786
Skating on the Serpentine by Thomas Rowlandson, 1786
Winter Amusement: A View in Hyde Park from the Sluice at the East End after Julius Caesar Ibbetson, 1787
Ah mon Dieu qu'il fait froid!!! - a drawing of a young woman holding a muff, with skaters and a tent in the background, attributed to Étienne Jeaurat
Winter landscape with skaters by Jacob Ernst Marcus, 1789
Skating on the Serpentine by Thomas Rowlandson, before 1790
Skating on the Serpentine, Hyde Park by Thomas Rowlandson
Picturesque Etchings including the River, Towing Barges and other Rural Studies by Thomas Rowlandson, 1790
Picturesque Studies and scenes of everyday life and people by Thomas Rowlandson, 1790
Pieter Magito, 1790
Skaters of varying competence on a frozen river, some to right and left sitting at stalls and having skates fitted, by Thomas Rowlandson, c. 1790-1800
Figures skating while spectators watch by Isaac Cruikshank, c. 1790-1811
Skating by George Morland, 1792
A pair of ice skates that belonged to Isaac LeFevre in New Paltz, New York; “Each skate consists of a metal blade mounted to a wooden platform. Leather straps and buckles secured the skates to the soles of shoes or boots.” On January 28, 1793, he wrote in his diary that “I wove and went to Springtown + to Sister Jane’s and Return’d home on Scates,” and the next day, “This Day it was Cloud-y I wove + went to D.D.B. + J. Hasb. and from thence on Scates to Springtown at Night thro’ the snow.”
Revd Dr Walker Skating on Duddingston Loch by Sir Henry Raeburn, c. 1795
Bertrand Andrieu by Pierre-Maximilien Delafontaine, 1798
Push-sled by Anthony Andriessen
IJsvermaak by Albertus Jacobus Besters
Kneeling woman tying on her skates by François Joseph Pfeiffer the younger
Drawing of a young woman fastening her skates by Jacobus Johannes Lauwers
Dutch winter landscapes with skaters on frozen rivers, including British Museum 1931,1114.145, 1931,1114.147, 1931,1114.149, 1931,1114.150, 1931,1114.151, 1931,1114.152
Winter, 1800: “An elderly man has fallen heavily in the right foreground, losing his wig and starring the ice. Two young men cut figures. Behind are spectators, a man putting on skates, and a tent.”
Skating Lovers, 1800
Winter by Richard Corbould, c. 1802
Le Suprême Bon Ton, c. 1802
Le Goût du Jour No. 6, c. 1802
Ziet hier wat Jonge Knepen ſpelen, 1806
Winter by Jacques Philippe Loutherbourg II
De kindren zyn altoos genegen om te speelen
Figures skating, possibly a caricature of Loutherbourg’s Winter, by Thomas Rowlandson
Figures skating on a frozen pond by Thomas Rowlandson
If you’re interested in ice skating and figure skating in the 18th century, read this Treatise on Skating.