Lord Alfred Paget, 'The Clerk Marshal'

Carlo Pellegrini ('Ape') caricatures Major-General Lord Alfred Henry Paget MP in his ceremonial role as Clerk Marshal to Queen Victoria — a Court appointment that made him responsible for the sovereign's household processions. The figure is rendered full-length in characteristic Pellegrini style: a stout, self-satisfied gentleman in a dark frock coat and silk top hat, white handkerchief spilling from his breast pocket, a thin cane tucked behind his back. The exaggeration is social rather than ethnic — Paget's comfortable girth and slightly smug bearing are the targets, gently mocking the overlap of military rank, parliamentary seat, and gilded Court sinecure that defined Victorian aristocratic ambition.