ABSTRACT
The first professional models were men because the European academic system considered drawing from the male body to be the intellectual foundation of high art. Following the system upheld at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, students could enter the School of the Living Model only after a prolonged period of study from the Antique. Here they were taught to analyse discrete body parts before reassembling these fragments into a perfected whole. The models employed tended to be soldiers or pugilists, renowned for their fine physiques and musculature, and presented in attitudes adopted from classical prototypes. This rigorous system was designed to be exclusive, rejecting not only those who lacked the stamina to complete the various stages of the curriculum, but also women, who were barred as both students and models. As P.G. Hamerton explained in 1 868 , a propos the French provincial academies, women were excluded as being a potential attraction "to young men who have no natural gift for art, nor any true ambition" . It was only when a youth had proved his vocation by studying the male figure that he could graduate to the studios of Paris and work from both sexes.
