Alexander William Kinglake, 'Not an M.P.' — Men of the Day, No. 41

Chromolithograph by Adriano Cecioni shows Kinglake — historian of the Crimean War and author of the celebrated travel memoir Eothen (1844) — seated in an armchair, legs crossed, hands clasped, head tilted upward in an attitude of lofty self-satisfaction. The caption 'Not an M.P.' is the joke: Kinglake had held a parliamentary seat for Bridgwater (1857–68) but lost it after the borough was disfranchised for corruption, a fall the plate gently mocks. The caricature exaggerates his heavy brow, ruddy complexion, and wild grey hair without resorting to ethnic distortion. Cecioni, an Italian sculptor-caricaturist who contributed briefly to Vanity Fair, renders drapery and shadow with sculptor's attention to mass, making Kinglake look simultaneously pompous and rather magnificent.