Thomas Harrington Wilson

Wilson wasn’t a painter, he was London’s go-to guy for cheeky prints that made fun of real people, usually in costumes. His 1847 lithograph of Miss Woolgar posing as a phantom duke is pure theater: top hat, ruffled collar, and a smirk meant to catch your eye. If you like the way old cartoons skewer celebrities, hunt down the real print at the British Museum and see how fast the joke lands 175 years later.