The Cameleopard, or a new hobby

Attributed to William Heath ('Paul Pry') British

Subject George IV, King of Great Britain and Ireland British

Subject Elizabeth Conyngham, Marchioness Conyngham British

1827

Not on view

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.

Artwork Details

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Catalogue Raisonné

References

Title: The Cameleopard, or a new hobby
Artist: Attributed to William Heath ('Paul Pry') (British, Northumbria 1794/95–1840 Hampstead)
Subject: George IV, King of Great Britain and Ireland (British, London 1762–1830 Windsor)
Subject: Elizabeth Conyngham, Marchioness Conyngham (British, 1769–1861)
Date: 1827
Medium: Graphite
Dimensions: sheet: 12 7/8 x 9 1/2 in. (32.7 x 24.1 cm)
Classification: Drawings
Credit Line: The Elisha Whittelsey Collection, The Elisha Whittelsey Fund, 1953
Object Number: 53.662.1
Curatorial Department: Drawings and Prints

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Eastern Coast of Rügen with Shepherd, Caspar David Friedrich German, Pen and brown ink, brush and brown wash, over graphite, with white opaque watercolor; partial framing lines in pen and brown-black ink — Eastern Coast of Rügen with Shepherd
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Modern Oddities, by P. Pry Esq., Plate 1st, William Heath ('Paul Pry') British, Hand-colored etching — Modern Oddities, by P. Pry Esq., Plate 1st
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