Adrift on the Lethe

On my way to the National Gallery I stopped to look at the cruciform homeless man lying on the mall. Returning with drawing materials I found he had moved his arm. Something about this self-martyred person was very compelling. It wasn't until the drawing was shown that Dr. Fern, Director of the National Portrait Gallery, pointed out that it was Manet's Dead Toreador. As a kid I loved that painting and doted on it--it was mine. The image had been marinating in my subconscious for decades. Manet had barrowed it from the 17th Century Italian painting, Dead Soldier.