The Liberal Pleasure Party At Sea

Leonard Raven-Hill (1867-1942)

Price

£3,500

Signed

Signed

Medium

Ink

Dimensions

10 ¼ x 9 inches

Illustrated

Punch, 2 July 1913, Pages 20-21

Exhibited

'The Illustrators. The British Art of Illustration 1837-2015', November 2015 - January 2016, Chris Beetles Gallery, London, no 81

This cartoon presents the Liberal government in the setting of a pleasure boat, a motif that at first seems appropriately celebratory for a summer issue of Punch. However, it alludes to the long-established allegory of the Ship of Fools, and so critiques a political lack of direction, as is signalled by the loaded title phrase ‘at sea’ and the image of the Prime Minister, Herbert Asquith, steering a wheel emblazoned with his procrastinating coinage, ‘Wait and See’. The ship itself is called ‘The People’s Will’, a term appropriated by the Liberals and, especially, Lloyd George, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, who had published a book of essays with that title in 1910.

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