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

A tile with an ice skater

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

Januarius et Februarius

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

Herfst. Winter.

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.