Andrew Lusk, MP — 'Now I want to know'

James Tissot's chromolithograph presents Alderman Andrew Lusk, Liberal MP for Finsbury, mid-harangue: a stout, white-haired figure in a dark frock coat and bow tie, one finger jabbing at a sheaf of closely printed papers — a bill, petition, or parliamentary return he means to interrogate. The caption, Now I want to know, perfectly captures Lusk's Commons persona: the plain-spoken City merchant turned politician, relentless on commercial and municipal probity. Tissot exaggerates the broad torso and the self-satisfied grin of a man who considers dogged questioning a civic virtue. The composition is cheerful rather than savage — Lusk was not a great enemy to be destroyed but a recognizable type: the prosperous, conscientious, slightly self-important Nonconformist businessman Westminster had come to depend upon.