Charles Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax — 'Statesmen No. 58'
Carlo Pellegrini · Vanity Fair, 6 August 1870
Carlo Pellegrini ('Ape') reduces Charles Wood, 1st Viscount Halifax — former Chancellor of the Exchequer and Secretary of State for India — to an elongated, stooped silhouette in black frock coat and polka-dot bow tie, squinting through a pince-nez at a slip of paper. The caricature exaggerates his famously large nose and sparse white hair into near-architectural proportion, a standard Pellegrini technique for elderly Whig grandees. The caption, 'He fell off his horse into the Peerage', is the plate's whole political argument: Wood's viscountcy (1866) is mocked as accidental elevation rather than earned distinction — a jab at aristocratic preferment over merit. The crown vignette top-right underlines the peerage joke. No ethnic caricature is present; the satire is purely class-political.
About this artifact
- Creator
- Carlo Pellegrini
- Date
- Vanity Fair, 6 August 1870
- Rights
- Public domain — free to view, share, and reuse.
- Restoration
- Digitally restored and hosted by ComicBooks.com.
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