Henry Petty-Fitzmaurice, 5th Marquess of Lansdowne
Carlo Pellegrini · Vanity Fair, 4 April 1874
Pellegrini ('Ape') renders the 25-year-old Marquess of Lansdowne in profile as a study in aristocratic self-possession. The caption — "Family" — is the whole joke: the Petty-Fitzmaurice line, one of Britain's grandest Whig dynasties, needed no further introduction to Vanity Fair's readers. The figure wears a frock coat with a boutonnière, grey trousers, and a silk top hat; a walking cane trails from his right hand. Pellegrini exaggerates the large nose and strong jaw into a patrician beak, a device he applied freely to English nobility without particular ethnic malice, though the same technique was wielded far more harshly against Irish and Jewish subjects elsewhere in the magazine's run. The crown device upper right flags his peerage rank. Lansdowne would later serve as Governor-General of Canada and Viceroy of India.
About this artifact
- Creator
- Carlo Pellegrini
- Date
- Vanity Fair, 4 April 1874
- Rights
- Public domain — free to view, share, and reuse.
- Restoration
- Digitally restored and hosted by ComicBooks.com.
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