Frederick Arthur Wellesley ('Promotion by Merit')

Carlo Pellegrini ('Ape') presents Colonel the Hon. Frederick Arthur Wellesley — grandson of the Iron Duke — in profile, leaning forward on a walking cane with one hand tucked behind his back. He wears a dark frock coat, grey trousers, white cravat, and a top hat; a boutonnière punctuates his lapel. The face is the caricaturist's instrument: an enormous nose and jutting chin compress the cranium above, the exaggeration mild but pointed. The caption, 'Promotion by Merit,' reads as dry irony — Wellesley had risen through the army and diplomatic corps, but his famous surname made any claim to purely meritocratic advancement a wry joke in a Britain still debating purchase reform and aristocratic preferment.