Lloyd George holds the bridge original sketch by Edward Tennyson Reed 1916

[LLOYD GEORGE, David] REED, Edward Tennyson. – “Lloyd George holds the bridge with a few friends.” Original drawing for The Bystander.
 
Original pencil drawing, signed with the artist’s monogram lower right, ca. 1916. 
 
Drawing 400 × 300 mm; sheet with mount 560 × 400 mm. Mounted on original backing board. Some light surface dust, minor handling creases to the sheet, and small bumps at edges of the mount, but the drawing itself is clean and well preserved.
 
A large political caricature by Edward Tennyson Reed (1860–1933), celebrated for his satirical work in Punch and The Bystander. The scene, inscribed on the verso with its published title, shows Prime Minister David Lloyd George (1863–1945) at the centre, clad in Roman armour, shield and gladius in hand, flanked by four members of his wartime “inner cabinet.” Among them can be recognised Bonar Law, Lord Curzon, Arthur Balfour and Lord Milner – the close circle of senior ministers who formed the streamlined “War Cabinet” of five when Lloyd George replaced Asquith as Prime Minister in December 1916.
 
The reduction of the cabinet was a dramatic wartime innovation: a small executive chosen for decisiveness, in contrast to Asquith’s larger and often unwieldy ministry. Reed’s allegory of the classical bridge defended by a few chosen warriors neatly captures the precariousness of the British position during the First World War, as well as the theatrical self-image of Lloyd George and his lieutenants.