ComicBook Experience

From the exhibition

'He has devoted his life to husbandry, and has nine children'

Leslie Ward · Vanity Fair, 14 April 1888

'He has devoted his life to husbandry, and has nine children'
Leslie Ward ('Spy') renders an unnamed gentleman of the agricultural or scientific establishment in the characteristically elongated Vanity Fair idiom: legs exaggerated, torso compressed, head enlarged to spotlight the subject's defining features. Here those features are a magnificent blonde-white walrus moustache, ruddy complexion, and the easy wide-legged stance of a man accustomed to open land rather than Westminster lobbies. He wears a well-cut dark frock suit, white pocket square, and black tie — prosperous but unpretentious. The caption anchors the joke: nine children confirm that his devotion to 'husbandry' extends beyond the fields. A small crown device at upper right signals aristocratic or landed rank. No ethnic caricature is present; the humour is purely domestic and agrarian.

Leslie Ward CC0