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George IV: A Life in Caricature
Contemporary Review, Summer, 2006
George IV: A Life in Caricature. Kenneth Baker. Thames & Hudson. [pounds sterling]24.95. 224 pages. ISBN 0-500-25127-4. George IV remains, probably, the most caricatured sovereign in British history. Here Lord Baker makes use of his own large collection of political caricatures to give readers a unique insight into how the King, and earlier the Prince Regent and earlier still, the Prince of Wales, fared at caricaturists' hands.
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In part this was because George IV invited caricature (his marriages to Mrs Fitzherbert and later Princess Caroline, his affairs, his spendthrift life, his laziness, his drunkenness and obesity). In larger part it was because caricatures were a principal way of criticising the Establishment and, for caricaturists, of making easy money. (The Prince frequently paid handsome sums to buy up the prints.) There are 211 illustrations (of which 206 are in colour and of which most are Lord Baker's) which are the book's chief appeal and they are arranged under various aspects of the King's character and life: the 'party boy,' the 'miserable husband' (Princess Charlotte) and the 'happy husband' (Mrs Fitzherbert, although this section does continue certain inaccuracies) and so on. Lord Baker provides a short introduction in which he shows that there is much for which one should praise George IV both in political and cultural terms and he comments on each caricature included, some of which have never been reproduced. (J.M.)
COPYRIGHT 2006 Contemporary Review Company Ltd.
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