Richard Dowse, 'An Irish wit and Solicitor-General'

Carlo Pellegrini ('Ape') caricatures Richard Dowse, Irish MP and Solicitor-General for Ireland, as plate 79 in the Statesmen series. The figure waddles in three-quarter profile: corpulent torso stuffed into a grey frock coat and waistcoat, a top hat perched on a round head, and a full red-orange beard amplified for comic effect. The belly protrudes dramatically, the legs taper to small polished boots — Pellegrini's signature trick for deflating the self-important. The caption 'An Irish wit and Solicitor-General' is double-edged: it concedes Dowse's genuine reputation for courtroom humour while the rotund physique plays into Victorian caricature's habit of rendering Irish politicians as bluff, beefy figures — broad rather than refined, comic rather than statesmanlike. The number '125' and price 'sixpence' appear in the lower margin.