Gladstone and Harcourt, 'Babble and Bluster' Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer

细节

Sir Leslie Matthew Ward 'Spy' (1851-1922)
Gladstone and Harcourt, 'Babble and Bluster'
Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer
signed and dated 'Spy/1892' (lower right)
pencil, watercolour and bodycolour
10 x 13 in. (25.4 x 33 cm.)
See illustration, inside back cover

来源

A.G. Witherby.

出版

Leslie Ward, Forty Years of 'Spy', published by Chatto & Windus, London, pp. 246-247.

展览

Hendon, Church Farm House Museum, Vanity Fair 1869-1914, 10 September - 18 December, 1983.

注意事项

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium, which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis. This lot is subject to storage and collection charges. **For Furniture and Decorative Objects, storage charges commence 7 days from sale. Please contact department for further details.**

拍品专文

William Ewart Gladstone (1809-1898) and Sir William George Granville Venables Vernon Harcourt (1827-1904), were Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Exchequer. Between 1880 and 1892, Sir William Harcourt acted as Gladstone's political deputy and this drawing executed by 'Spy' in 1892 depicts these two political giants in the last year of that era. Gladstone had just been made Prime Minister for his fourth term, but Vanity Fair expresses a sense of despair for the new leader. The drawing is entitled 'Babble and Bluster', the nicknames attributed to the Prime Minister and the Chancellor of the Exchequer by the anonymous writers of Vanity Fair. In the article Mixed Political Wares, 'Babble' is portrayed as a manipulator of policies and principles to his own gains. His deputy, 'Bluster', is portrayed as a man who has talked his way into a position of power, with no apparent substance. The two men are depicted seated together on the front bench in the House of Commons. Harcourt is leaning back in the seat with his hands resolvedly clasped over his waist, eyes cast to the opposite side of the chamber and quite distant from his companion. Gladstone, on the other hand, seems eager to hear something that has been said by a person near or behind him, but his expression would suggest that he is unable to do so. 'Spy' subtly alludes to the idea that the two politicians are disengaged from each other and out of touch with the House.

He [Gladstone] has been making political speeches for two generations; yet, since he defended the slaveowners sixty years ago he has scarce taken up a cause that he has not ruined, nor advocated scarce a principle that he has not presently thrown overboard. Chief of 'Babble's' associates is one 'Bluster', who is very proud of his blood, boasting himself to be a Scion of a Royal House. But there is a great difference between the persuasiveness of 'Babble' and the bullying of 'Bluster'; and though he be not without ability he will never suffice to hold together the mixed and unregenerate Party that has just been collected by the 'Babble'.

Vanity Fair, 'Mixed Political Wares', 1892.