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From the exhibition

Algernon Henry Bourke ('Algy'), Men of the Day No. 702

Leslie Ward · Published 20 January 1898; drawn c. 1897

Algernon Henry Bourke ('Algy'), Men of the Day No. 702
Leslie Ward ('Spy') renders the Hon. Algernon Henry Bourke—son of the 6th Earl of Mayo—as a prosperous Edwardian clubman. The full-length chromolithograph shows a heavily built, mustachioed figure in black evening dress, voluminous opera cloak with silk lapels, white bow-tie, and gold watch-chain; he carries a top hat at his side with patrician ease. The caption reads simply 'Algy', the familiar diminutive signaling insider recognition. Ward's characteristic gentle mockery falls entirely on Bourke's considerable girth and self-satisfied bearing—the exaggerated bulk a standard social joke at well-fed gentlemen of the Anglo-Irish ascendancy. The plate is lithographed by Vincent Brooks, Day & Son.

Leslie Ward Public domain