The Wasp — 1896 — page 897: what you’re looking at

What you’re looking at

The top image shows a formal royal photograph with three figures and a caption indicating it depicts "the Czar of Russia and his retinue" at a French landing, with the Tsar identified as "President Faure, the first French statesman." The lower section contains Victorian-era humor snippets and three photographs of a young girl at different ages (1873, 1878, and 1879), captioned as showing "The Czarina, as she looked according to photographs taken at three stages of her girlhood." The satire appears to mock the Russian Tsar's visit to France by humorously reidentifying the figures and presenting a child's progression as representing the Empress—a crude joke likely commenting on the diplomatic or personal aspects of the Russian royal visit.