The Women's Skating Competition on The
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152 the rijks gold for houkjemuseum gerrits bouma bulletin Gold for Houkje Gerrits Bouma The Women’s Skating Competition on the Stadsgracht in Leeuwarden on 21 January 1809, Painted by Nicolaas Baur • pieter roelofs • round four o’clock on Saturday Detail of fig. 1 more detailed version of a composition A 21 January 1809, Houkje Gerrits that Baur made the year before and Bouma from Veenwouden, the twenty- which is now in the Fries Museum in one-year-old daughter of a bargee, Leeuwarden (fig. 2).4 The two works threw her arms in the air on the – exceptions in the oeuvre of the frozen Stadsgracht, the moat around Harlingen-born marine painter – are Leeuwarden, the capital of Friesland.1 among the earliest pictures of women’s By triumphing in the duel with Mayke sports in Dutch history. The work in Meyes Visser from Heeg, four years the Rijksmuseum is the most monu- her junior, she was able to call herself mental example of nineteenth-century the winner of what later would turn paintings of an official skating com - out to be one of the most famous petition. skating races of the nineteenth century The acquisition of this unusual – a truly popular festival that had work was made possible by a generous commenced the day before with gift from Willem Jan Hacquebord qualifying heats between sixty-four and Houkje Anna Brandsma from young, unmarried women.2 She was Dokkum. The name is no coincidence – awarded an expensive gold cap brooch Mrs Hacquebord-Brandsma is a direct and her name was recorded in the descendant of the winner Houkje ear liest annals of Dutch skating, but Gerrits Bouma in the fifth generation; she was also the target of adverse she is named after her grandmother, comments. Critics thought it inappro- and her aunt and great-grandmother priate that women should expose also bore the name.5 them selves to the rigours of skating competitions. They emphasized the Women at the Start participants’ unbecoming style, The competition in Leeuwarden that shameful clothes and excessive Baur chose as the subject of his two exhaustion. paintings was not the only race for In the spring of 2013 the Rijks- women in the winter of 1808-09, nor museum was able to acquire a scene on was it the first. Three skating races the ice by the Frisian painter Nicolaas for women were organized within one Baur from Lawrence Steigrad Fine month that season in the provinces Arts in New York. Some time earlier, of Groningen and Friesland: in Zuid- it had been identified as a record of broek, Groningen and Leeuwarden. the memorable race in question These were exceptional events, as we (fig. 1).3 The canvas of 1810 is a larger, only know of one public short-distance 153 the rijksmuseum bulletin Fig. 1 nicolaas baur, The Women’s Skating Competition on the Stadsgracht in Leeuwarden, 21 January 1809, 1810. Oil on canvas, 59.7 x 74.9 cm. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. sk-a-5020; gift of Willem Jan Hacquebord and Houkje Anna Brandsma, 2013. 154 gold for houkje gerrits bouma 155 the rijksmuseum bulletin Fig. 2 race for women before then. The first from Veenwouden in the semi-final. nicolaas baur, documented race for female skaters In spite of the incorrect spelling of View of the Wester- was held on Leeuwarden’s Stadsgracht her name and the discrepancy in her singel in Leeuwarden, on 1 and 2 February 1805 and no fewer age it is highly likely that the latter was in the Winter: than 130 Frisian girls and women, in fact the aforementioned Houkje Speed Skating for Women, 1809. married and unmarried, ranging in age Gerrits Bouma, already a strong skater Oil on panel, from fourteen to fifty-one took part. at the age of seventeen, who four years 39.7 x 44.2 cm. Attracting unprecedented public inter- later succeeded in getting her revenge Leeuwarden, est – according to reports there were as the winner on the same canal.6 Fries Museum, between 10,000 and 12,000 spectators The Frisian Society – the race was won by twenty-year-old The race in 1805 left an indelible for History and Trijntje Pieters – later named in full impression on many people. The very Culture Collection, inv. no. S07596. as Trijntje Pieters Westra – a farmer’s fact that women had sprinted over the daughter from Poppingawier who beat frozen canal underscored the time- sixteen-year-old Janke Wybes from honoured view that everyone was Damwoude. The list of competitors equal on the ice, and the high-spirited reveals that she had first knocked out fellowship the event evoked was a certain Aukje Gerrits, aged twenty, widely celebrated. 156 gold for houkje gerrits bouma Fig. 3 aldert jacob van der poort, The Women’s Skating Competition on the Stadsgracht The drawing Aldert Jacob van der in a poem that he recited at the dinner in Leeuwarden, Poort of Leeuwarden made shortly in the Oude Doelen of the Leeuwarden 1-2 February 1805, afterwards is of importance in creating city militia after a race for mixed 1805. the image of this competition (fig. 3). couples: ‘We thank you Van der Poort! Coloured ink wash, This sheet was made into a print in the For the fruits of your art still show the pen and grey ink, 9 322 x 412 mm. same year by Jacob Ernst Marcus of entertainment we beheld.’ Leeuwarden, Fries Amsterdam and published there with There was nothing extraordinary Museum Collection, a written account by P.H. Meyer & about women skating around 1800, inv. no. p1986-014. Comp.7 Nowadays we know of several particularly in the northern provinces. versions of it: uncoloured, coloured Skating was second nature, particu- and in black and white (figs. 4-6). larly to the wives and daughters of The impact of this print, both on the bargemen, farmers and agricultural fame of the competition and on the labourers. In the winter, when the depiction of races for women in the roads were impassable, they usually early nineteenth century, was huge.8 travelled over the ice on their skates Eighteen years later, on 18 January for their everyday tasks.10 Skating was 1823, the Frisian lawyer Bavius also regarded as a form of recreation Gijsbertus Rinia van Nauta noted that was accessible to both men and 157 the rijksmuseum bulletin Fig. 4 jacob ernst marcus after a drawing by aldert jacob van der poort, Skating Competition for Women in Leeuwarden, 1805, 1805. Etching, 451 x 619 mm. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. rp-p-ob-67.850. Fig. 5 jacob ernst marcus after a drawing by aldert jacob van der poort, The Women’s Skating Competition on the Stadsgracht in Leeuwarden, 1-2 February 1805, 1805. Etching, grey wash, 477 x 640 mm. Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, inv. no. rp-p-ob-67.851. 158 gold for houkje gerrits bouma Fig. 6 jacob ernst women. While figure-skating was all From Innkeeper to Director marcus after the rage in Holland, speed skating Originally it was innkeepers and a drawing by was more popular in Friesland and tavern landlords who seized upon the albert jacob Groningen, and on occasion women popularity of skating in the north by van der poort, also took part in skating races over The Women’s Skating staging races, which they advertised Competition on longer distances in small groups. For widely in advance. The huge number of the Stadsgracht example we know of a race to Gronin- people at the competitions guaranteed in Leeuwarden, gen skated by two women in 1801 in them extra trade in the winter, as did 1-2 February 1805, which they covered thirty miles in the trotting races and the Frisian 1805. two hours.11 It is remarkable that over handball (‘kaatsen’) they promoted in Etching and aquatint, the course of the eighteenth century spring and summer. It has until now 394 x 569 mm, the elite, primarily in the west of the Leeuwarden, Fries been thought that the first innkeeper Museum Collection, country, had increasingly distanced to place an advertisement for a race inv. no. pta063c-006. themselves from skating. ‘Nowadays in a newspaper was Nanne Jetzes our people usually look upon skating from the village of Baard.13 However as low entertainment for the common his announcement, which appeared in man’, said the Leiden-born naturalist the Leeuwarder Saturdagse Courant and writer Johannes Le Francq van on 1 January 1780, had been preceded Berkhey in 1773.12 This did not apply to seventeen years earlier by a report about the northern provinces, where skating a skating event that had taken place not remained popular with the majority of in Friesland, but in Groningen. The the population. layout that innkeeper Johannes Tomas 159 the rijksmuseum bulletin had to be repeated in the years that followed. A new skating culture developed in the region at this time. Prominent Frisians, members of the local bourgeoisie, gradually took over the organization of short-distance racing. They formed a ‘committee’ with ‘commissioners’, who with permission from the town council saw to the thorough preparation and spectacular presentation of the skating events. They had no regular revenues – from membership fees, for instance, – so they covered a large proportion of the expense themselves; the balance was raised from wealthy fellow towns - people by way of a subscription list. We know little about the motivation of these gentlemen, particularly where the organization of special women’s competitions is concerned. There can Fig. 7 from Grijpskerk used in the Opregte be no doubt that they were well aware rienk jelgerhuis, Groninger Courant on 11 January 1763 that the sensational short-distance A Skating Race, – derived from the usual announce- competitions could be employed as a from the series ments for trotting races at this time, means of keeping the populace happy.