Hughes (John) Attributed to.

Oxford, , 1816.
A caricature on the event of bestowing honorary degrees on the Allied Sovereigns by Oxford University in 1814, a ceremony attended by Tsar Alexander I of Russia, who was accompanied on the visit by his sister, Ekaterina Pavlovna, the Duchess of Oldenburgh, depicted in the centre here, her slender figure shrouded in a full-length dress with very long hanging sleeves, her head completely hidden by an enormous bonnet, being greeted by a very rotund don, who heads a group of very unattractive senior university figures. In attendance behind her walk two equally ugly, and short, women in capes and peculiar fur-trimmed bonnets, captioned below as ‘Mesd.s Aladensky & Volochousky’ (probably Princess Volkonsky, the wife of the Tsar’s ADC), followed by the imposing figure of Prince Nicholas Gagarin. A large crowd fills the background, some of the younger element on the right tossing their mortar boards into the air, drawing the eye up to the Oxford skyline of towers and spires, and the dome of the Radcliffe Camera.

This crudely etched caricature is usually attributed to the author and illustrator, John Hughes (1790-1857), as supported by the inscription of unknown, but seemingly 19th century, date on the support sheet of this example. He was at Oriel College at the time and even participated in the ceremony, reciting an English ode to the assembled dignitaries. The etched lettering below the image includes what appears to be ‘J.H. del.t & sculp.t 1816’. But the drawing style appears closer to that of writer, intellectual, and practical joker, Theodore Edward Hook (1788-1841), as suggested by Dr. Andrew Norton, and as seen in two other caricatures more positively attributed to him (BM Satires 13933 and 13934). The latter of these, the frontispiece to Hook’s ‘Solomon Logwood’, (a biting loyalist attack on Matthew Wood MP, the champion of Queen Caroline in the great legal dispute of 1820), bears stylistically identical initials, now possibly to be read as T.H. rather than J.H..
160 by 315mm (6¼ by 12½ inches).