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From the exhibition

Hugh Henry Rose, Baron Strathnairn — 'Statesmen No. 60'

Carlo Pellegrini · Vanity Fair, 20 August 1870

Hugh Henry Rose, Baron Strathnairn — 'Statesmen No. 60'
Carlo Pellegrini ('Ape') renders Field Marshal Lord Strathnairn in profile: an elderly man hunched forward in a dark frock coat and grey trousers, white gloves clasped behind him, a tall grey top hat exaggerating his stooped silhouette. The caricature emphasizes age and physical diminishment — a reddened, jutting nose and receding chin. The caption reads, *'He was made a Statesman because he was a soldier,'* a pointed irony: Rose had commanded British forces in India during and after the 1857 uprising, and his elevation to the House of Lords owed everything to military prestige rather than political talent. Pellegrini's line questions whether military authority translates into civilian wisdom.

Carlo Pellegrini Public domain