Hand-in-waistcoat

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
David's Napoleon in His Study (1812), a famous example of the hand-in-waistcoat portrait

The hand-in-waistcoat was a gesture commonly found in men's portraiture during the 18th and 19th centuries. Napoleon I of France was most well known for the gesture and is readily associated with this gesture because of the several portraits made by his artist, Jacques-Louis David. Theories state the gesture was done by Napoleon because of a stomach pain he had, but the pose was common in portraits from the mid-18th century.[1] The pose originates from classical times — Aeschines, founder of a rhetoric school, suggested that speaking with an arm outside one's toga was rude.[2]

References

  1. ↑ Meyer, Arline (March 1995). "Re-dressing classical statuary: The nineteenth-century `Hand-in-Waistcoat' portrait". Art Bulletin (College Art Association) 77 (1): 45–63. doi:10.2307/3046079. JSTOR 3046079. 
  2. ↑ Holmberg, Tom. "Why is Napoleon depicted with his hand in his coat?". The Napoleon Series. Retrieved 2008-08-26. 

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Hand-in-waistcoat.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike; additional terms may apply for the media files.