Sir William Russell Flint, R.A., P.R.W.S. 1880-1969

'"Five feet of wondrous powder snow and myself, a very poor skier, with painting kit on back, going quite mad and swishing down vast white slopes and falling again and again. If the sun was shining and there was no wind painting in watercolour is quite feasible. I worked on skis but had to be careful to beat a level platform in the snow on which to stand. As I shuffled my skis the snow turned to ice and if it was not truly level I would find myself sliding backwards or forwards and plunging into deep snow out of which it was difficult to climb. But I always held on to my paint box and brushes!"' (Arnold Palmer, More Than Shadows; A Biography of W. Russell Flint R.A., P.R.W.S., 1943, p.40)

The model for this watercolour was almost certainly a friend named Margaret Brown, painted by Flint on practice slopes of Flims in the Engadine. She also posed for Winter Sport painted in 1927 in which Flint based all of the five figures upon her, much to the confusion of Brown's brother who, after seeing the picture in her house, pointed to one of the figures: ''That's you.' 'Yes,' she replied, 'that's me. They're all me.' 'Don't be a fool,' he retorted, 'how could they be?' (Ralph Lewis, Sir William Russell Flint 1880-1969, 1980, p.98)