Lot Essay
Ice skating is a centuries-old pastime, with some scholars suggesting that skating in its earliest form first began in southern Finland more than 3,000 years ago. The invention of edged, bladed skates by the Dutch in about the 13th or 14th centuries aided skaters in controlling their movement, which was integral to the development of figure skating as we know it today. The popularity of ice skating spread across the continent during the 17th through 19th centuries, where it became a particular favorite pastime of the aristocracy. Madame de Pompadour, Napoleon I, Napoleon III, Queen Victoria and Prince Albert and the House of Stuart were, among others, royal and upper class fans of ice skating. The French particularly took to the sport, and in the 18th and 19th centuries began forming clubs whose members would show off with colorful costumes, challenging jumps and graceful arm movements – true practitioners of the earliest form of patinage artistique rather than just skating for leisure. So well-known were the French for their skills on the ice that the 19th-century French ice skater Jean Garcin boasted, ‘There are no good skaters anywhere but in Paris.’ Still, these skaters only had outdoor ice surfaces available to them, and were limited in when they could skate by the vagaries of the weather until the ‘rink mania’ of the second half of the 19th century led to the building of a large number of indoor ice rinks.
The present painting, depicting the elegant Parisians of the Belle Époque living up to the considerable reputation of Parisian ice skaters, is set in the Palais de Glace, which was housed in a building that still stands today as the Théâtre du Rond-Point. First commissioned by Louis-Philippe to house a panorama which would depict victories of the Grande Armée, the building is located at the intersection of the Champs-Élysées and L'Avenue Franklin-D.-Roosevelt (formerly L’Avenue d'Antin). In 1893-94, with the popularity of panoramas waning and with the development of refrigeration making indoor ice rinks possible, the building was transformed into Le Palais de Glace, one of the first skating rinks to open in Paris, and the place to see and be seen for chic Parisians of all walks of life during the Belle Époque. Le Figaro, covering the opening on 23 December 1893 described the scene on the ice as follows: 'Ah! The graceful, the exquisite, the shimmering kaleidoscope! There were statesmen and diplomats, politicians and financiers, men of letters and artists, poets and thinkers, people of study and people of pleasure, club men and society men, the sportsmen and sportswomen, beautiful ladies of great and little virtue -- All the aristocracies, all the distinctions, all the elegance, the flower, in a word, of all these little Parisian worlds, which, on their own, form a mass of dissident cliques, and which, brought together by common sympathy, by some rare attraction, constitute, for companies like the Palais de Glace, the surest element of success, the most desirable of the clienteles, whose assemblage is labeled under this generic formula, without equivalent in any language: Paris.’
The ice rink, which took up the center of the rotunda, was surrounded by a promenade where those perhaps less deft on the ice could still enjoy the excitement. The walls of the promenade were lined with large mirrors which must have created a shimmering, whirling spectacle for those walking by as the mirrors reflected both the skaters on the ice and the Palais’s new electric chandeliers. There were also bars located around the edge of the ice where spectators could enjoy a drink or a chocolat chaud as they took in the excitement. The upper gallery, where spectators could look down on the scene on the ice as well, was ‘richly adorned with frescoes’ according to Le Figaro. Finally, an orchestra of 50 musicians was on hand to accompany the skaters. Though Rousseau-Decelle undertook the present painting some 15 years after Le Palais de Glace opened, it is clear from the scene he depicted that the novelty of this beautiful rink had not faded in the slightest. The skaters present on the ice here are of as great a variety as Le Figaro described at the opening, as is the type of skating they are practicing. Among the assemblage, one can see early practitioners of ice dancing, speed skating, singles skating and school figures, while others, content to people watch, stand on the ice to take in the crowd.
The present painting, depicting the elegant Parisians of the Belle Époque living up to the considerable reputation of Parisian ice skaters, is set in the Palais de Glace, which was housed in a building that still stands today as the Théâtre du Rond-Point. First commissioned by Louis-Philippe to house a panorama which would depict victories of the Grande Armée, the building is located at the intersection of the Champs-Élysées and L'Avenue Franklin-D.-Roosevelt (formerly L’Avenue d'Antin). In 1893-94, with the popularity of panoramas waning and with the development of refrigeration making indoor ice rinks possible, the building was transformed into Le Palais de Glace, one of the first skating rinks to open in Paris, and the place to see and be seen for chic Parisians of all walks of life during the Belle Époque. Le Figaro, covering the opening on 23 December 1893 described the scene on the ice as follows: 'Ah! The graceful, the exquisite, the shimmering kaleidoscope! There were statesmen and diplomats, politicians and financiers, men of letters and artists, poets and thinkers, people of study and people of pleasure, club men and society men, the sportsmen and sportswomen, beautiful ladies of great and little virtue -- All the aristocracies, all the distinctions, all the elegance, the flower, in a word, of all these little Parisian worlds, which, on their own, form a mass of dissident cliques, and which, brought together by common sympathy, by some rare attraction, constitute, for companies like the Palais de Glace, the surest element of success, the most desirable of the clienteles, whose assemblage is labeled under this generic formula, without equivalent in any language: Paris.’
The ice rink, which took up the center of the rotunda, was surrounded by a promenade where those perhaps less deft on the ice could still enjoy the excitement. The walls of the promenade were lined with large mirrors which must have created a shimmering, whirling spectacle for those walking by as the mirrors reflected both the skaters on the ice and the Palais’s new electric chandeliers. There were also bars located around the edge of the ice where spectators could enjoy a drink or a chocolat chaud as they took in the excitement. The upper gallery, where spectators could look down on the scene on the ice as well, was ‘richly adorned with frescoes’ according to Le Figaro. Finally, an orchestra of 50 musicians was on hand to accompany the skaters. Though Rousseau-Decelle undertook the present painting some 15 years after Le Palais de Glace opened, it is clear from the scene he depicted that the novelty of this beautiful rink had not faded in the slightest. The skaters present on the ice here are of as great a variety as Le Figaro described at the opening, as is the type of skating they are practicing. Among the assemblage, one can see early practitioners of ice dancing, speed skating, singles skating and school figures, while others, content to people watch, stand on the ice to take in the crowd.