From the exhibition
Henry Grey, 3rd Earl Grey — 'A privileged person'
Carlo Pellegrini · Vanity Fair, 8 May 1869, Statesmen No. 14; chromolithograph by Carlo Pellegrini ('Ape')

Pellegrini renders the 3rd Earl Grey — Colonial Secretary under Russell and architect of the 1846–52 imperial policy debates — as a stooped, forward-lunging figure in black frock coat and grey top hat, cane angled low, gloved hand trailing behind. The crown device in the upper corner signals aristocratic rank. The caricature deploys a simian facial treatment — receding brow, prognathous jaw, flattened nose — here shading political contempt: Grey was widely regarded as pompous and obsolete. 'A privileged person' reads as irony. Ape's lithograph rewards close reading: the body language conveys inertia costumed as authority.
Carlo Pellegrini Public domain