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| Simon Vouet Study for Ignudo before 1649 drawing (study for fresco) Musée du Louvre |
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| Bartolomeo Passarotti Figure Studies before 1592 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Eustache Le Sueur Figure Study before 1655 drawing (study for painting) Musée du Louvre |
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| Anonymous Artist Standing Model Half-Length ca. 1779-80 drawing Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| Anonymous Artist Model with Raised Arms 18th century drawing Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| James Barry Standing Model holding a Palm ca. 1780 drawing Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| Henry Fuseli Standing Figure posed after an antique Dioscuri Group ca. 1790 drawing Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| Jean-Baptiste Greuze Study of Seated Model ca. 1780 drawing Musée du Louvre |
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| Thomas Stothard Study of Seated Model ca. 1800 watercolor Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| Thomas Stothard Model Study ca. 1800 watercolor Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| Thomas Stothard Model Study ca. 1800 drawing Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| Thomas Stothard Figure Studies ca. 1800 drawing Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| Thomas Stothard Standing Model Half-Length ca. 1800 drawing Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| Thomas Stothard Recumbent Model ca. 1800 drawing Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| Edmund Thomas Parris Female Figure Half-Length ca. 1820 oil on canvas Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| Edmund Thomas Parris Female Figure Half-Length ca. 1820 oil on canvas Royal Academy of Arts, London |
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| Benjamin Robert Haydon Model posed as Robinson Crusoe on the Raft ca. 1815 drawing Royal Academy of Arts, London |
Half-Eaten
The fortune-teller told me I was going to
come into a large sum of money soon. She told
me my love life would continue to be happy and
satisfying. She said my health would be vigorous.
But then she looked worried. She said there was
some kind of large cat in my near future – a cougar.
And that cat would surprise me when I least expected
it. And that, of course, cancelled out all the
previous good news. I paid her and left her dirty,
little storefront. I looked up and down the street,
checked out the rooftops. Once home, I kissed Jo,
and headed for my study where I looked up Cougar.
Six to eight feet in length, 160 lbs., can drag
five time their weight, can leap twenty feet in
one bound, jump from sixty feet above the ground.
I debated telling Jo. I knew she would ridicule
me. Then I went back in the kitchen and told her.
She stared at me in disgust, incapable of even
finding words at first. Then she said, "You went
to a fortune-teller? And you believe this outrageous
crap about a cougar? And all these years I thought
I was married to a sensible man. What happened
to you, Ralph? Are you on drugs? Have you been
drinking?" "Weirder things have happened," I said.
"Last week a man exploded in Chicago, spontaneous
combustion, walking down the street. There were
witnesses. It was in the paper. There used to be
cougars in these parts, only they called them cata-
mounts or mountain lions. There could be one left,
has a thing for me." "You're not serious, are you,
because, if you are, I'm moving out until your bloody
destiny has reached its climax," she said. It's
strange how alone I felt just then. I thought, it's
just me and the cat, now. I said, "Gee whiz, Jo,
can't you take a little joke. You know I would
never go to a fortune-teller." "Still," she said,
"I can feel it, you're a marked man."
–James Tate (2002)