'Christchurch' — Henry George Liddell

Carlo Pellegrini ('Ape') caricatures Henry George Liddell, Dean of Christ Church, Oxford, and co-author of the Greek lexicon still bearing his name. The plate caption reads simply 'Christchurch.' Pellegrini renders him in full academic dress — black doctoral gown with a caped hood, white clerical bands at the collar, and a mortarboard perched above a wild white wig — the whole silhouette suggesting ponderous institutional authority. The figure's heavy-lidded, slightly contemptuous expression captures the imperious manner Liddell's contemporaries noted. The satirical work skewers Oxonian self-importance. Liddell is best remembered today as the father of Alice Liddell, Lewis Carroll's inspiration, a fact Vanity Fair's readers would have relished behind the donnish dignity on display.