Joseph Cowen, 'Newcastle-on-Tyne' — Statesmen No. 128

Signed 'Ape' (Carlo Pellegrini, not Tissot as sometimes miscatalogued), this chromolithograph caricatures Joseph Cowen Sr., radical M.P. and Tyneside industrialist. The caption 'Newcastle-on-Tyne' locates his power base rather than naming him — a Vanity Fair convention. Pellegrini exaggerates Cowen's bull-necked solidity: arms akimbo, white chin-whiskers bristling, a black top-hat planted low, the whole figure radiating provincial stubbornness. The tan frock coat and waistcoat suggest Northern bluntness over metropolitan polish. The caricature works through body language — immovable, confrontational — befitting a Tyneside coal-interest magnate and Garibaldi sympathiser who spent decades irritating Westminster from the back benches.