Patrice de Mac Mahon, Marshal of France and President of the Republic

Théobald Chartran's chromolithograph presents Mac Mahon in three-quarter profile: a stout, florid-faced man in a double-breasted frock coat, top hat, and a discreet red boutonnière — no medals, no uniform, deliberately civilian. He grips a crooked walking stick behind his back. The caption quotes his famous 1855 Sebastopol dispatch, 'J'y suis, j'y reste' ('Here I am, here I stay') — ironic in 1879, since he had just resigned the French presidency under republican pressure after seven contentious years. The caricature exaggerates his ruddy bulk and walrus moustache, the portrait type Vanity Fair reserved for bluff military men past their political prime. No ethnic caricature is present; the satirical weight is purely political: a soldier who overstayed his welcome.