'Police' — Lieutenant-Colonel Edmund Yeamans Walcott Henderson
Carlo Pellegrini · March 6, 1875
Carlo Pellegrini ('Ape') presents Henderson, Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police from 1869 to 1886, as a lean, slightly stooped civilian gentleman rather than a uniformed officer. He wears a long grey frock coat, brown trousers, and a silk top hat, hands buried in pockets — the image of administrative authority dressed in bourgeois anonymity. The caption reads simply 'Police.' Pellegrini's caricature elongates the figure modestly and emphasizes Henderson's reddish mutton-chop whiskers and drooping moustache, sharpening the face into weary self-importance. The composition's political argument is quiet but pointed: London's police chief passes for any prosperous gentleman on the street, power concealed beneath respectability — a wry comment on Victorian policing's preference for plainclothes discretion over transparent accountability.
About this artifact
- Creator
- Carlo Pellegrini
- Date
- March 6, 1875
- Rights
- Public domain — free to view, share, and reuse.
- Restoration
- Digitally restored and hosted by ComicBooks.com.
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