Giclee, Caricature, Vanity Fair, First Australian Prime Minister, Sir Edmund Barton, Portrait, Federation, 1901

Sir Edmund Barton, Vanity Fair caricature of the First Prime Minister of Australia 1901-1903.

This caricature was published while Sir Edmund Barton was on an official visit to England for the Coronation of Edward VII (after the death of Queen Victoria). 

Archival Limited Edition Giclee Limited to /200

Page Size = 20 x 36cm (8 x 14 1/3 inch)

Vanity Fair Magazine

This magazine began as a political commentary of it’s day in Britain. Then, in an effort to widen its circulation, a “Vanity of the Week" was included. Printed using the new color-printing technique Chromolithography, the caricatures did indeed achieve its intended outcome. It worked wonderfully! So it was that on  October 16th, 1902, Barton was honored with caricature by "SPY", Sir Leslie Ward (1851-1922), who was one of Vanity Fair's most celebrated, therefore highly collectable, artist's.

From the Vanity Fair Text that accompanied this Caricature: "Barton was the Prime Minister and Minister for External Affairs in the first Cabinet of the Australian Commonwealth,...now he is at the top of the Australian Political Tree, ...for he is quite an able man who can look exceedingly wise; and he has a natural if rather rugged dignity that is all his own" (Jehu Junior)     

Sir Edmund Barton

Barton became Australia's First Prime Minister on New Year's Day 1901 at an historic public ceremony in Sydney's Centennial Park. Having been a member of the New South Wales Parliament for 20 years, serving as the Legislative Assembly's Speaker, Leader of the opposition and Attorney-General. He had been of a keen supporter of the Federation Movement for a decade so was certain seen as a "safe pair of hands" by all those that worked so hard to achieve this, sometimes fragile, objective.