Why did people (maybe only men) once pose with one hand (the right one it seems) inside their jacket pocket for portraits? Some old photos show people doing this, too, not just paintings, but it must have fallen out of favor not too long after the camera became a somewhat common way to take portraits.
Random Wild Guess here, but it may go back to older portraits of men with hands on their sword.
It has been speculated that that pose solves two problems at once: what to do with your hands, and having to paint a hand in the first place. It also helps you hold your belly in.
Which sword?
This pose originated with Napoleon.
During the US Civil War, most officers effected the same pose.
It also allowed you to keep your pants from falling down.
George Washington would be surprised to hear that. Or are you saying that it was George Washington who was imitating the pose adopted by portraits of the seven-year-old Napoleon Bonaparte?
The OP said the hand was in the jacket pocket. I imagine something more like this, rather than the [del]“Napoleon”[/del] “Washington” pose.
A WAG: It’s just something people did with their hands when getting a portrait, similar to the way people often put their hands in an L shape today.
maybe it helped produce a reproducible stable pose, good for portraits or long duration photos.
It seems to be the left hand, so the answer is oh so obvious! They are hiding the wedding band.
George Washington upthread looks like he’s trying to keep from barfing. Maybe they just didn’t feel well?
You don’t say.
The point being that it’s nothing more than that. Why do people make the L shape? It doesn’t mean anything.
Sorry I meant jacket like Napolean, not pocket. not sure why I wrote pocket.:smack:
It was supposed to display breeding:
According to this and several other sites easily found by googling it, it is;
“It is a Masonic pose. It is called the “Sign of the Master of the Second Veil” in Freemasonry”
Although others say as yabob stated, or that it was merely copying poses that people had seen on statues and portraits.
And interestingly enough, the google search turns up this thread from 2001;
http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-67736.html
If you saw the documentary Time Bandits, you’d know that Napoleon had a solid-gold hand that he wanted to keep hidden.
Sure it does!
Here’s an even earlier portrait of Washington, in his Virginia militia uniform, with his hand… well, you know: Redirect
This’d be my guess - it’s a fairly comfortable pose one can hold for some time.
This could also explain the surprising lack of “air guitar” paintings.