Image number: RS.20805

    Caricature of Oliver Joseph Lodge

    Date
    1904
    Sitter
    Oliver Joseph Lodge (1851 - 1940, British) , Physicist
    Creator
    Sir Leslie Matthew Ward (1851 - 1922, British) , Artist
    Creator - Organisation
    Object type
    Archive reference number
    Material
    Technique
    Dimensions
    height (print): 380mm
    width (print): 263mm
    Subject
    Description
    Caricature of Oliver Lodge at full length, shown in left profile as viewed, with hands in pockets.

    Inscribed in the bottom left corner of the print: ‘Spy’
    Inscribed above: ‘VANITY FAIR Feby. 4th 1904’
    Inscribed below: ‘Vincent Brooks Day & Son Ltd. Lith/ “Birmingham University”’

    This caricature is titled ‘Birmingham University’ and was number 907 of the ‘Men of the Day’ series published in Vanity Fair between 1868-1913.

    The associated text begins: ‘He is only fifty-four, but he is a Staffordshire man who has made himself so great in Science that he has won many degrees from several Universities, and four years ago was appointed Principal of the University of Birmingham; which though new is quite a wholesome institution. He began in a Staffordshire Grammar School; equipped himself at University College, London; was made Professor of Physics at University College, Liverpool; won the Rumford medal of the Royal Society, and last year was chosen to be Romanes Lecturer at Oxford […]’

    Sir Oliver Joseph Lodge (1851-1940), British physicist, was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1887 and was awarded its Rumford Medal in 1898 for ‘his researches in radiation and in the relations between matter and ether’.

    Sir Leslie Matthew Ward (1851-1922), British artist who did much of his work under the pseudonym ‘Spy’ and served as a caricaturist for Vanity Fair between 1873-1911.
    Object history
    Vanity Fair ’s ‘Men of the Day’ series, which featured a full page, colour caricature of a significant public figure and text commentary, largely written by "Jehu Junior", was a popular feature that ran between 1868 and 1913.

    This print was purchased by the Royal Society in 1999.
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