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From the exhibition

Lord Justice Rigby ('Mr Solicitor')

Henry Charles Seppings Wright · Vanity Fair, 31 August 1893

Lord Justice Rigby ('Mr Solicitor')
Signed Stuff — the pseudonym of Henry Charles Seppings Wright — this chromolithograph caricatures Sir Joseph Rigby QC MP, then Solicitor-General, under the caption *'Mr Solicitor.'* The composition is a profile study in the magazine's established idiom: a rotund, prosperous figure in tan overcoat and gleaming top hat, grey-bearded and self-satisfied, clutches a heavy leather bag while an umbrella juts rakishly from behind. The exaggerated girth and florid complexion were standard visual shorthand for comfortable Establishment success — no ethnic caricature is present. Rigby, a Liberal lawyer who rose to the Court of Appeal, is rendered as the archetypal professional man-of-affairs: competent, well-fed, and quietly pleased with himself.

Henry Charles Seppings Wright Public domain