Gathorne Gathorne-Hardy, 1st Earl of Cranbrook

Plate No. 181 in the Statesmen series, captioned simply "Conservative" — a one-word political verdict on one of Disraeli's most reliable lieutenants. The chromolithograph, attributed here to Adriano Cecioni rather than the better-known Spy or Ape, shows Gathorne-Hardy in three-quarter profile: a balding, ruddy-faced man in a long black frock coat, striped trousers, and a watch-medallion at his chest. Cecioni's draftsmanship exaggerates the jutting jaw and receding crown into a beak of patrician stubbornness — a physiognomic shorthand common to the period. Hardy had just served as Secretary of State for War; the pose — stolid, slightly hunched, unmovable — flatters his reputation for blunt Tory reliability over eloquence.