[Timothy Mott]

Thanks for putting up this new series! A comment about the drawing at 7:25 in Chapter 3: I believe that the figures in this drawing are not ice skating(!) but rather engaging in a duel.

The man on the left has just shot the one on the right; you can see the smoke rising from the pistol. The victim is falling forward into the snow, and his own pistol has slipped from his hand. The other two men would be their seconds, and are there to prevent the duel if possible, and if not, then to ensure a fair outcome, and so on. They are urgently rushing toward the victim; they probably didn’t expect the shot to be fatal. (Many duels were resolved by the participants “accidentally” shooting into the air, for example.)

This might be a depiction of the duel in Eugene Onegin, where Onegin shoots his best friend Lensky.

Cheers,

Tim

• This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by Timothy Mott.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 11 months ago by Timothy Mott.

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