Notman's Victoria Skating Carnival April 25, 1870

William Notman's first composite photograph was of the Skating Carnival at Victoria Rink held on March 1, 1870, in honour of Prince Arthur, the youngest son of Queen Victoria. It received it's first public viewing today, April 25, in 1870.

 

"Photograph | Skating Carnival, Victoria Rink, Montreal, QC, painted composite, 1870 | N-0000.116.21.1"

More information about this image 

This Victoria Rink Skating Festival was the first of Notman’s famous composite scenes. He’d take individual photos of a hundred or more people (for this skating party he took 150 individual photos) and then he’d put them into a painted composite scene – sort of a multi-media combination of photography and painting. For this scene he put an invitation notice in the newspaper for people to come in their masquerade dress and with their skates.

     Everything always looks so formal, so polite to me when I look at pictures from the past, and it gives one a skewed picture of how things really were. The skating party can’t have been so perfect – the McCord Museum cites the Montreal Gazette on April 26, 1876 [seems likely that date is supposed to be 1870] congratulating Notman for leaving out "the monstrosities and idiocies of bad taste, which never should have disfigured the Fancy Dress Assembly."

    Parties will always be parties.

 

Prince Arthur (Thunder Bay was originally called Port Arthur after Prince Arthur) later became the HRH Duke of Connaught - and the Governor General of Canada from 1911 to 1916. He was the first member of the Royal family to be a G. G. Prince Arthur is on the bottom left, towards the centre of the photo.

     Prince Arthur was only 20 at the time and was stationed in Montreal with the Rifle Brigade.

Maybe the big skating party held in his honour was the inspiration for his daughter Princess Patricia’s own elaborate skating parties in Ottawa when they lived in Rideau Hall 41 years later. She also had people dress up in the dress of different nations – a sort of fancy dress ball.  

     The Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry was named after his daughter Patricia.

You can find more on the Governors Generals here

William Notman learned all he knew about photography after he’d moved from Scotland to Montreal in 1856. He became one of the most famous photographers in the world – and he was certainly an audacious businessman. He’s the one who ended up taking all the photographs of the Fathers of Confederation (and their unmarried daughters and wives who they’d brought along) at the Confederation talks in Quebec in October, 1864. He managed to get the commission for photographing the making of the Victoria Bridge in 1859, and he became Queen Victoria’s official photographer. There’s lots more on Elaine Kalman Nave’s CBC Idea’s Podcast  here.

The McCord Museum in Montreal also has an immense collection of his work and everything else Notman. I'll get to see it all for myself this May - searching for his photographs of my lost 'daughters of Confederation. See more on the daughters of Confederation

William Notman 'Canada's most successful photographer'

On CBC Radio this eve Part One on William Notman - famous photographer of, among other things - the eighth wonder of the world, or the Victoria Bridge in Montreal (for example), and the Fathers, and daughters, of Confederation.

 From CBC Idea's website:
"He [Notman] arrived in Montreal in 1856 as a fugitive from the law. He became Canada's most successful photographer. A rare combination of canny businessman and master craftsman, William Notman embraced the wondrous new medium of photography and left us a unique record of Canada's social history. A portrait by Montreal writer Elaine Kalman Naves.  ...

On the lam from the law, William Notman remade himself in Montreal.  He saw his chance and quickly mastered the brand new art of photography. His timing couldn't have been better.  Fascination with the astonishing new medium was sweeping Europe and North America - never before had it been possible to create a permanent image without an artist's pencil or paintbrush or engraver's tools.  Eventually, William Notman would own the largest photography business in North America ... "
 
      And to the 'Daughters' of Confederation:

Mercy Coles, who I wrote about last fall at this time (here and about weekly through November 2011)  and used in my novel To the Edge of the Sea, was the charming, beautiful and unmarried 26 year old daughter of Prince Edward Island delegate and Father of Confederation George Coles. She kept a diary of her trip to Quebec for the Confederation conference of 1864 and subsequent tour of the Canadas. Their first stop after the conference was Montreal. There she writes of her visit to William Notman's studio to have her photograph taken.

Saturday October 29, 1864 continued:

“ ... Ma and I have just been to the Convent Congregation Notre Dame. Mr. McDonald (stutterer) came and took Mamma and I. I have just come from Notman’s. My photograph was not good I don’t think, so I would not take it however the man said he would send me two dozen to the Island. ...”

        The CBC link has good pictures and a link to the McCord Museum in Montreal which has a phenomenal collection of pictures, videos and information on Notman and his work, (regardless of what Mercy Coles thought of her photo).