Mr. Punch Versus the Kaiser, 1892-1898: Flashpoints of a Complex Relationship, Part II -- Photographing "Wilful Wilhelm"

Abstract

In last Fall's edition of 'International Journal of Comic Art' (13:2, 2011:553-578), I detailed the often heated relationship between Germany's last Kaiser, Wilhelm II (1859-1941), and the most famous of all British satirical weeklies, 'Punch', or 'the London Charivari'. At the time of printing, one key figure -- the original model on which Linley Sambourne based his "Wilful Wilhelm" cartoon ('Punch', March 26, 1892:146) -- was as yet unavailable. Thankfully, with the assistance of Daniel Robbins (Senior Curator, Leighton House Museum), John Rogers, and Shirley Nicholson (author of several seminal works on the Sambourne family), the original photograph was shown to an appreciative audience at the "Art and Politics in Britain" conference at King's College, University of Cambridge (Nov. 7, 2011), and can now be published for the first time since Sambourne first took the photograph on March 17, 1892 (Fig. 1), alongside the cartoon (Fig. 2) for comparison.