John Locke, M.P. — 'The only man who is ever known to make Mr Gladstone smile'

James Tissot's chromolithograph caricatures John Locke, Liberal M.P. for Southwark, as a corpulent, white-whiskered gentleman in a straining brown frock coat, one hand tucked into his breast, the other loosely holding a glove — the very image of well-fed self-satisfaction. The caption places him in sharp relief against Gladstone's famously severe, humourless public persona: to be his sole reliable source of amusement was both a compliment and a gentle needle at Locke's status as parliamentary entertainer rather than heavyweight statesman. Tissot renders the belly with affectionate excess, using the coat's buckling buttons to do the satirical work. No ethnic caricature is present; the mockery is purely one of comfortable bourgeois bulk and the role of political jester.