The Prince of Wales and Other Famous Americans
1925
In 1925, Mexican caricaturist Miguel Covarrubias turned his razor-sharp eye on the celebrities, power brokers, and artists defining American culture and captured something far more revealing than mere likeness. The Prince of Wales and Other Famous Americans presents 66 black-and-white portraits that transcend simple humor: here is Charlie Chaplin's melancholy beneath the bowler hat, Willa Cather's fierce concentration, John D. Rockefeller's glacial composure. The future Edward VIII appears at a race track in the frontispiece, his 1924 American visit emblematic of the transatlantic celebrity culture Covarrubias skewers and celebrates. Originally published in Vanity Fair where Covarrubias served as staff cartoonist, these drawings combine anatomical precision with psychological insight, transforming celebrities into characters whose fame and eccentricity still resonate. This is Jazz Age America rendered in ink: a glittering, wicked, affectionate portrait of the famous and powerful by an artist who saw through every mask.
