Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield ('He educated the Tories and dished the Whigs to pass Reform...')
1 portrait of Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield
© National Portrait Gallery, London
Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield ('He educated the Tories and dished the Whigs to pass Reform...')
by Carlo Pellegrini
chromolithograph, published in Vanity Fair 30 January 1869
13 3/8 in. x 8 3/8 in. (342 mm x 214 mm) paper size
Reference Collection
NPG D1033
Sitterback to top
- Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield (1804-1881), Prime Minister and novelist; Trustee of the National Portrait Gallery. Sitter associated with 112 portraits.
Artistback to top
- Carlo Pellegrini (1839-1889), 'Ape'; caricaturist. Artist or producer associated with 490 portraits, Sitter in 5 portraits.
This portraitback to top
This is an original drawing, published as a chromolithograph in Vanity Fair on 30 January 1869, the first caricature to appear in the magazine's fifty-year history. As such it is a landmark work in the history of Victorian graphic satire. The society magazine Vanity Fair was founded in 1868 and introduced a distinctive type of satirical portraiture new to British journalism. Appearing every week, these caricatures were reproduced by the revolutionary new process of chromolithography and included many of the best-known personalities of the late Victorian and Edwardian periods.
Related worksback to top
- NPG 6659: Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield (source portrait)
- NPG D43364: Benjamin Disraeli, Earl of Beaconsfield [Statesmen No. 1] (from same stone)
Events of 1869back to top
Current affairs
Gladstone introduces the Irish Church Disestablishment Act, which disestablishes the Church of Ireland, disassociating it from the state and repealing the paying of tithes to the Anglican Church of Ireland.Girton College is founded in Cambridge by Barbara Bodichon and Emily Davies, the first residential college for women in England; women were granted full membership to the University in 1948.
Art and science
Russian chemist Dmitri Mendeleev invents the periodic table of elements, which arranges elements within a group in order of their atomic mass.The British scientist Mary Somerville publishes her last book On Molecular and Microscopic Science.
Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir paint together in the open air at La Grenouillère, developing the Impressionist style.
International
The Suez canal opens, linking the Red Sea and the Gulf of Suez with the Mediterranean Sea, and transforming trade routes between Europe and Asia as merchants no longer had to circumvent Africa. The canal was largely in British and French control until Egyptian nationalisation in 1956, which sparked off the international Suez crisis.Serialisation of Leo Tolstoy's epic novel of Russian society during the Napoleonic wars, War and Peace finishes.
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