The Cameleopard, or a new hobby

William Heath ('Paul Pry')|George IV, King of Great Britain and Ireland|Elizabeth Conyngham, Marchioness Conyngham

1827 · Graphite · Drawings and Prints

Heath's design for a printed caricature shows George IV seated astride a high-stepping giraffe accompanied by his mistress Lady Conyngham. The king wears a straw hat with wide curving brim and the lady a large bonnet--in the related print she wears a tiara and feathers--with two Nubians bowing at right. The satire responds to a giraffe, then called a cameleopard, that the Pasha of Egypt presented to the king in 1827. The animal arrived at Windsor on August 13, and Lord Marlborough wrote to The Times the following day, "everybody was so much engrossed by talking of the cameleopard who has just arrived, that nothing else seemed to be thought of." Until its death two years later, the giraffe was a popular subject for satirical printmakers.

Artist

William Heath ('Paul Pry')|George IV, King of Great Britain and Ireland|Elizabeth Conyngham, Marchioness Conyngham

Date

1827

Medium

Graphite

Department

Drawings and Prints

Credit line

The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1953