Sir Henry James, Statesman: 19th C. Vanity Fair Caricature by Pellegrini (Ape)

There are occasional faint spots, but the lithograph is otherwise in very good condition. The original text page from the Vanity Fair publication describing the subject of the caricature portrait is included.

From 1868 until February 5, 1914, Vanity Fair, a weekly magazine of social, literary and political content, was very popular in Victorian and later, Edwardian England. The most popular of its features were the full page caricatures of famous men and women of the day which included their biographies, which remains the magazines lasting legacy. Vanity Fair's most famous artists were Carlo Pellegrini who signed his works “Ape” and Leslie Ward, known as “Spy”, but many other artists and writers contributed caricatures and prose to the publication, including Lewis Carroll, Willie Wilde, P. G. Wodehouse, Jessie Pope and Bertram Fletcher Robinson.

Thomas Gibson Bowles was the founder, owner, and editor of the magazine until 1889. He described the images as "grim faces made more grim, grotesque figures made more grotesque, and dull people made duller by the genius of our talented collaborator 'Ape'; but there is nothing that has been treated with a set purpose to make it something that it was not already originally in a lesser degree."

Carlo Pellegrini, contributed to the success of Vanity Fair in the early years. He was born and trained in Italy, but moved to London in 1864, at age 25. He was eccentric and soon became popular in British society. Pellegrini has been referred to as “the presiding artistic genius of Vanity Fair’s early years”. He signed his work with the pseudonym “Ape”, a reference to the ape-like features that he frequently used to characterize his subjects.