'The Maharajah' — Duleep Singh, Vanity Fair, 18 November 1882
Vincent Brooks, Day & Son after Sir Leslie Ward · Published 18 November 1882; chromolithograph by Vincent Brooks, Day & Son after Sir Leslie Ward ('Spy'); No. 266 in the 'Men of the Day' series
Ward's caricature presents Duleep Singh — last Maharajah of the Sikh Empire, deposed at ten by the East India Company and long resident in England — as a prosperous gentleman: rotund, balding, in a brown frock coat and white waistcoat, cigarette dangling from his lips, a signet ring on his right hand. The caption reads simply 'the Maharajah.' The figure is physically exaggerated in the standard Vanity Fair mode — bulk and baldness amplified — but Ward renders Singh in English dress without South Asian regalia. By 1882 Singh was receiving a Crown pension and had been effectively removed from political influence, his Punjab patrimony stripped. The cartoon combines flattery with diminishment through its formal treatment.
About this artifact
- Creator
- Vincent Brooks, Day & Son after Sir Leslie Ward
- Date
- Published 18 November 1882; chromolithograph by Vincent Brooks, Day & Son after Sir Leslie Ward ('Spy'); No. 266 in the 'Men of the Day' series
- Rights
- Public domain — free to view, share, and reuse.
- Restoration
- Digitally restored and hosted by ComicBooks.com.
Part of our mission to preserve and restore the public-domain heritage of the medium.