From the exhibition
Chichester Parkinson-Fortescue, Baron Carlingford
Carlo Pellegrini · Published 14 August 1869, *Vanity Fair*, Statesmen No. 28

Carlo Pellegrini ('Ape') renders Fortescue in strict profile, stooped forward under a stovepipe hat, dark frock-coat, pale trousers, and cane — the posture suggesting deference or diffidence rather than ministerial authority. The caption acidly reduces his career to two facts: a socially advantageous marriage to the formidable Whig hostess Lady Waldegrave, and his tenure as Chief Secretary for Ireland. The joke is one of diminishment: the man governed a kingdom but is remembered chiefly as his wife's husband. Pellegrini's exaggeration of the jutting jaw and sloping shoulders is typical of his Continental grotesque style — biting but without the ethnic caricature Vanity Fair sometimes deployed against Irish or Jewish subjects. The sitter emerges as capable, pliant, and perhaps a little absurd.
Carlo Pellegrini Public domain