In February, 1896 when the International Skating Union held the first figure skating competition in St. Petersburg, Russia, none of the men noticed that they had made no rule excluding women. But a British skater, Madge Syers-Cave, did and when she appeared at the 1902 World Skating Championship, held conveniently in London, she took home the silver medal. Syers-Cave became the first woman to win a gold medal for figure skating at the 1908 Winter Olympics, held at Chamonix, France. At age twenty-seven, she was also the oldest woman, thus far, to win that award, and she also won an award for pairs skating with her husband, Edgar Syers. Madge Syers-Cave died in 1917, only thirty-five, a victim of the influenza pandemic.
Winslow Homer's Skating Scene, printed in the January 25, 1868 edition of Harper's Weekly conveys the sense of sweep and movement of the skaters, along with an ability to capture a moment's motion in the painstaking medium of lithography. Even more painstaking in Homer's case, as he insisted on doing all the detail work himself, rather than leaving it for engravers to flesh out. What is not obvious from this distance, is that these young American girls were engaged in the subversive movement of women in physical activity for pleasure. The boy in Edward Penfield's cover for Harper's (1896) is putting on the woman's skates for her, sparing her from having to lean down in public.
Winslow Homer's Skating Scene, printed in the January 25, 1868 edition of Harper's Weekly conveys the sense of sweep and movement of the skaters, along with an ability to capture a moment's motion in the painstaking medium of lithography. Even more painstaking in Homer's case, as he insisted on doing all the detail work himself, rather than leaving it for engravers to flesh out. What is not obvious from this distance, is that these young American girls were engaged in the subversive movement of women in physical activity for pleasure. The boy in Edward Penfield's cover for Harper's (1896) is putting on the woman's skates for her, sparing her from having to lean down in public. Images:
1. Winslow Homer - Skating Scene, 1868, Art Institute of Chicago.
2. Edward Penfield - Harper's, February 1896, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
3 comments:
We forget that women once were not encouraged to participate in physical activity for pleasure. A good reminder that all of this pleasure didn't come without a heck of a lot of effort.
Jeanne, when i gave a talk on Winslow Homer last year, this was one of the images I used to show that Homer portrayed women doing things, rather than being decorative for the viewer's pleasure. Think of all the woodland scenes with nude, curvaceous females. "If you go out in the woods today, you're sure for a big surprise...."
Jeanne, when i gave a talk on Winslow Homer last year, this was one of the images I used to show that Homer portrayed women doing things, rather than being decorative for the viewer's pleasure. Think of all the woodland scenes with nude, curvaceous females. "If you go out in the woods today, you're sure for a big surprise...."
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