A portrait type that appeared with relentless frequency in eighteenth-century England is the familiar image of a gentleman poised with one hand inside his partially unbuttoned waistcoat. Standard interpretations of this portrait posture offer observations of correspondence-demonstrating either that it mirrors actual social behavior or that it borrows from classical statuary . Such explanations, however, illuminate neither the source of this curious convention nor the reason for its popularity, it is true that in real life the "hand-in" was a common stance for elite men. Still, there were other ways of comporting the body that did not become winning portrait formulas. And even if the "hand-in" portrait does resemble certain classical statues, what accounts for the adoption of this particular pose?