Man Proposes, God Disposes is an 1864 oil-on-canvas painting by Edwin Landseer. It is inspired by the search for Franklin's lost expedition that was lost in the arctic in 1845. Since 1881 the painting has resided at the Royal Holloway, University of London where it has been frightening students ever since. There is a debunked urban legend where a student in the 1920s died during their exams and wrote that "the polar bears made me do it". This has led to the belief that students who are near it during exams will fail unless the painting is covered up.

It has been said that this painting:
• can cause students to fail exams
• can cause student to go mad
• made a student stab a pencil into their eye