NAM.1995-02-39-1

The Rivals. / or love and mischief. Lithograph by W Clerk, nd. Published by F Glover, London, 1841 (c). Presented with No 59 of ‘The Fly’. Shows a young soldier in a lancer’s uniform holding a young woman’s hand, as they both watch an older corpulent suitor bending to pluck a water lily for the woman (possibly a satire on Queen Victoria, torn between the influence of her prime minister Lord Melbourne and her husband Prince Albert).