This well-known Notman studio photograph depicts a costumed skating carnival held in 1870 at the Victoria Skating Rink in Montreal in honour of Prince Arthur. Although it appears to be an oil painting, it is actually a composite photograph painted over with oils, one of the studio's specialties. The technique involved pasting individual photographs onto a sketched background, photographing and reproducing the collage, projecting the image onto canvas with a solar enlarger, and then painting it.