Lord Henry Lennox
Lord Henry Lennox | |
|---|---|
 Caricature by Ape published in Vanity Fair in 1870. | |
| First Secretary of the Admiralty | |
| In office 16 July 1866 – 1 December 1868 | |
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | The Earl of Derby Benjamin Disraeli |
| Preceded by | Thomas Baring |
| Succeeded by | William Edward Baxter |
| First Commissioner of Works | |
| In office 21 March 1874 – 14 August 1876 | |
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | Benjamin Disraeli |
| Preceded by | William Patrick Adam |
| Succeeded by | Hon. Gerard Noel |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 2 November 1821 |
| Died | 29 August 1886 (aged 64) |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Conservative |
| Spouse(s) | Amelia Brooman (d. 1903) |
| Alma mater | University of Oxford |
Lord Henry George Charles Gordon-Lennox PC (2 November 1821 – 29 August 1886), known as Lord Henry Lennox, was a British Conservativepolitician who sat in the House of Commons from 1846 to 1885 and was a close friend of Benjamin Disraeli.
Lennox was the third son of Charles Gordon-Lennox, 5th Duke of Richmond, and Lady Caroline, daughter of Field Marshal Henry Paget, 1st Marquess of Anglesey. He was the brother of Charles Gordon-Lennox, 6th Duke of Richmond, Lord Alexander Gordon-Lennox and Lord George Gordon-Lennox. He was educated at The Prebendal School, Chichester, then University of Oxford.[1]
Lennox entered the House of Commons in 1846 as Member of Parliament for Chichester, in Sussex. He represented this constituency until 1885,[2]when he stood for Partick, but was defeated.[3]
Lennox held office in every Conservative government between 1852 and 1876. He was a Junior Lord of the Treasury in 1852 and between 1858 and 1859 in the first two short-lived governments of the Earl of Derby before becoming First Secretary of the Admiralty in 1866 in Derby's last government, a post he held until 1868, the last year under the premiership of his close friend Benjamin Disraeli. According to John F. Beeler in British naval policy in the Gladstone-Disraeli era, 1866-1880, Lennox acted as a spy to the then Chancellor of the Exchequer, Disraeli, informing him of the intentions of leading admirals.[4]
He served again under Disraeli as First Commissioner of Works from 1874 to 1876[5] and was admitted to the Privy Council in 1874.[6] He was forced to resign as First Commissioner of Works after revelations in the case of Twycross v Grant regarding the Lisbon Tramways swindle, of which company he was a director.[7][8]
Lennox married Amelia Susannah (née Brooman), widow of John White, in 1883. They had no children. He died in August 1886, aged 64. Lady Henry Lennox died in February 1903.[1] John White was the uncle of another peer, Lord Overtoun, while lady Amelia was the great-grandmother of 1950s MP Richard Brooman-White.[9]
Carlo Pellegrini (caricaturist)
Carlo Pellegrini (25 March 1839 – 22 January 1889), who did much of his work under the pseudonym of Ape ([ˈaːpe], Italian for "bee"), was an artist who served from 1869 to 1889 as a caricaturist for Vanity Fair magazine, a leading journal of London society. He was born in Capua, then in the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. His father came from an ancient land-owning family, while his mother was allegedly descended from the Medici. His work for the magazine made his reputation and he became its most influential artist.
Pellegrini was educated at the Collegio dei Barnabiti, and then at Sant'Antonio in Maddaloni, near Naples. As a young man he caricatured Neapolitansociety, modelling his portraits on those of Melchiorre Delfico and Daumier and other French and British artists of the period. Pellegrini claimed to have fought with Garibaldi; however, those who knew him well dismissed this as fantasy.
Deciding to leave Italy in 1864 after a series of personal crises, including the death of his sister, he travelled to England via Switzerland and France. He arrived in London in November 1864; he later claimed to have arrived destitute, and to have slept on the streets and in doorways. However, this claim may have been another fantasy designed to make him seem to be a Bohemian artist. In London he became a friend of the Prince of Wales.[1]
It is not recorded how Pellegrini met Thomas Bowles, the owner of Vanity Fair magazine, but he quickly found himself employed by that publication and became its first caricaturist, originally signing his work as 'Singe' (French for "Monkey") and later, and more famously, as 'Ape' (Italian for "Bee"). Pellegrini's work for the magazine made his reputation and he became its most influential artist, in which his caricatures were to be printed for over twenty years, from January 1869 to April 1889. His 1869 caricature of Benjamin Disraeli was the first colour lithograph to appear in the magazine, and proved immensely popular. It was the first of a highly successful series of more than two thousand caricatures published by Vanity Fair. Although the later caricatures by Sir Leslie Ward are perhaps now more well known, those by 'Ape' are regarded by many collectors as being artistically and technically superior.
Apart from drawing his caricatures for the magazine, Pellegrini also attempted to set himself up as a portrait painter, but this venture met with limited success. Pellegrini met Degas in London in the 1870s, and in about 1876–77 painted his portrait, inscribed 'à vous/Pellegrini' (to you/Pellegrini). In return, Degas painted Pellegrini's portrait, similarly inscribed.
Pellegrini was a member of the Beefsteak Club in London and there met Whistler, who became a great influence on his work; indeed, he even attempted to paint portraits in the style of Whistler. Pellegrini was also a member of The Arts Club from 1874 until 1888.
Pellegrini was extremely careful about his appearance, and would wear immaculate white spats with highly polished boots. He grew long Mandarin-like fingernails, would never walk when he could ride, and had a limitless fund of amusing stories and eccentricities. He spoke broken-English, flaunted his homosexuality (at a time when it was dangerous to do so), and would often bring macaroni dishes to elegant dinner parties. He would refuse invitations to country houses out of fear of strange beds, and had a habit of keeping a cigar in his mouth as he slept.[2]
He died of lung disease aged 49 at his home, 53 Mortimer Street, near Cavendish Square in London. He is buried in St. Mary's Roman Catholic Cemetery, Kensal Green, London.
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