The Story of "The Skater"

So this is like the most charming art-history story ever. It seems the painter Gilbert Stuart—do I really need to link to the Wikipedia entry? He's the guy who did the portrait of George Washington, and if you need a link to find out who George Washington is then I just give up—anyway, he was a struggling artist before he painted this. The subject, a William Grant, showed up at his studio to have a portrait done one winter's day in 1782 or thereabouts. Grant remarked that it was a day better suited for skating than sitting for a portrait. And evidently they were both fairly free spirits, because that's what they did—they went skating. A portrait like this had never had action in it before, and for once it didn't create a big shocked scandal because this was the 18th century and people were pretty cool in the 18th century. The portrait made Stuart's reputation and assured his future, although he was kind of lax about money and got into debt a lot anyway.

Now, I'm not recommending that we all be free spirits and go skating when we ought to be working. Stuart actually was working while he was skating, when you think about it. At any rate, I love the painting and the story behind it too.

Afterthought update: You know, I looked this over and asked myself why I called the pre-"Skater" Stuart a "struggling artist," like that's a kind of species of person. Wasn't he more an artist who was struggling (to make a living, of course)? And then I decided not. A struggling artist often has characteristic traits—a perverse satisfaction in his or her financial embarrassment comes to mind—that a struggling regional sales manager, say, usually doesn't. If Stuart were really worried about money, he wouldn't have paid much attention to the skating idea. "Yeah, yeah, whatever," he'd have said. "Now siddown over there and let's do this thing—I got bills to pay, buddy." But he didn't. Bless his whimsical heart, he went skating.