AESCULAPIUS IN LONDON 1913 John Bernard Partridge PUNCH CARTOON PAGE

Original 10 1/2 inch x 8 1/4 inch Wood Engraved Cartoon page titled AESCULAPIUS IN LONDON. from Punch, August 13, 1913.

Mr. McKenna (to Presiding Deity of International Medical Congress). “YOU LOOK AS IF YOU KNEW ALL ABOUT MICROBES, SIR. COULDN’T YOU FIND ME AN ANTIDOTE TO THIS?”

Reginald McKenna (1863 – 1943) was a British banker and Liberal politician. His first Cabinet post under Henry Campbell-Bannerman was as President of the Board of Education, after which he served as First Lord of the Admiralty. His most important roles were as Home Secretary and Chancellor of the Exchequer during the premiership of Herbert Henry Asquith. He was studious and meticulous, noted for his attention to detail, but also for being bureaucratic and partisan.

Asclepius is a hero and god of medicine in ancient Greek religion and mythology. He is the son of Apollo and Coronis, or Arsinoe, or of Apollo alone. Asclepius represents the healing aspect of the medical arts; his daughters are Hygieia ("Hygiene", the goddess of cleanliness), Iaso (the goddess of recuperation from illness), Aceso (the goddess of the healing process), Aegle (the goddess of good health), Panacea (the goddess of universal remedy), and several sons. He was associated with the Roman/Etruscan god Vediovis and the Egyptian Imhotep. He shared with Apollo the epithet Paean ("the Healer"). The rod of Asclepius, a snake-entwined staff, remains a symbol of medicine today. Those physicians and attendants who served this god were known as the Therapeutae of Asclepius.

The cartoon is by John Bernard Partridge (1861 - 1945). An English illustrator born in London. Partridge was educated at Stonyhurst College, and after matriculating at the University of London entered the office of Dunn & Hansom, architects. He then joined for a couple of years a firm of stained-glass designers (Lavers, Barraud and Westlake), learning drapery and ornament; and then studied and executed church ornament under Philip Westlake, 1880–1884. He began illustration for the press and practised watercolour painting, but his chief success was derived from book illustration. In 1891 he joined the staff of Punch and, in 1910, became its chief cartoonist, replacing Edward Linley Sambourne. During his time at Punch, Partridge published several cartoons showing his support for the Suffragist movement. He was elected a member of the Royal Institute of Painters in Water Colours and of The Pastel Society

Punch, or The London Charivari, was a British weekly magazine of humour and satire established in 1841 by Henry Mayhew and wood-engraver Ebenezer Landells. Historically, it was most influential in the 1840s and 1850s, when it helped to coin the term "cartoon" in its modern sense as a humorous illustration.

The print is in very good condition. Reverse side blank.