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| Alphonse Mucha Model posing in Mucha's Studio in Paris ca. 1895 gelatin silver print Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney |
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| Georges Seurat Models 1886-88 oil on canvas Barnes Foundation, Philadelphia |
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| Christian Rohlfs Half-Length Study of Model 1879 oil on canvas Osthaus Museum, Hagen, Germany |
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| Max Klinger Drapery and Figure Study 1891 drawing Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden |
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| Otto Greiner Académie ca. 1898 drawing Milwaukee Art Museum |
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| Bernard Hall Studies of Limbs ca. 1880 drawing National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne |
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| Kenyon Cox Indian Summer 1887 oil on canvas Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Kenyon Cox Echo 1892 oil on canvas Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC |
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| Hubert von Herkomer Model Study for enamel, The Triumph of the Hour ca. 1897-98 drawing British Museum |
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| Alexander Rothaug Figure Study ca. 1895 drawing Graphische Sammlung Albertina, Vienna |
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| Paul Peel Académie ca. 1885 oil on canvas Museum London, Ontario |
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| James McNeill Whistler Fosco 1872 drypoint Art Institute of Chicago |
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| Frederick Goodall Studies of a Baby 1868 drawing Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York |
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| George Hendrik Breitner Sleeping Model ca. 1884-89 oil on canvas Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam |
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| Frank Duveneck Reclining Nude 1892 oil on canvas Indianapolis Museum of Art |
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| Henri Goovaerts Académie ca. 1890 oil on canvas Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht |
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| Wilhelm von Gloeden Taormina 1890 albumen silver print Art Institute of Chicago |
A View of the Burning
Righteous or not, here comes an angry man
Done up in crimson, his face blackened
If only by the smoke of a self-purifying flame.
Now he is thrusting his hand into the flame
To sear away not, as he said, a moment's folly
So much as his hand, the useful part of it.
I must confess this fails, after a bit,
I must confess this fails, after a bit,
To produce the intended effect on us.
We had loved each other freely, humanly
With our own angers and our own forgiveness
– Who now, made light of by his seriousness,
Gases on which flame feeds, are wafted up
With lyre and dart, public, hilarious,
Two cupids cuddling in a cupola.
Useless to say he is acting for our sakes.
One does not care for those who care for one
More than one cares for oneself. Divine or not
At the end he calls upon justice. But, my dear,
Little shall startle from the embers, merely
A grinning head incensed, a succulence
On which to feast, grinning ourselves, I fear.
– James Merrill (1959)