Charles George Gordon, 'The Ever Victorious Army'

Signed 'Ape' (Carlo Pellegrini, not Ward despite the catalog attribution), this chromolithograph caricatures Lieutenant-Colonel Charles George Gordon CB RE in profile: frock coat, top hat, one hand tucked behind his back, the other holding what appears to be a thin cane or cigarette. The caption, 'The ever victorious army,' alludes to the irregular Chinese imperial force Gordon commanded against the Taiping Rebellion in the 1860s, burnishing his legend as 'Chinese Gordon.' Pellegrini renders him compact and self-contained, with an enlarged nose and ruddy complexion typical of the series' physiognomic exaggeration. The plate appeared four years before Gordon's death at Khartoum, catching him at the height of his celebrity as soldier-mystic.