Henry Gordon-Lennox, 'A Man of Fashion and Politics'

Signed 'Ape' — Carlo Pellegrini's pseudonym — this chromolithograph is plate 57 in the Statesmen series. It shows Lord Henry Gordon-Lennox, Conservative MP and minor political figure, in black evening coat and grey trousers, one gloved hand dangling loosely while he pulls on the other with an air of studied indifference. Pellegrini exaggerates the subject's stooped posture and elongated nose in his characteristic manner — the body slight, the head enlarged and tilted forward, conveying aristocratic ennui rather than menace. The caption 'A man of Fashion and Politics' is gently satirical: it ranks society pleasures ahead of legislative achievement, a pointed editorial verdict on a man whose connections outweighed his accomplishments.