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From the exhibition

Sir Francis Philip Cunliffe-Owen, 'Paris Exhibition'

Leslie Ward · November 23, 1878

Sir Francis Philip Cunliffe-Owen, 'Paris Exhibition'
Leslie Ward ('Spy') presents Cunliffe-Owen — director of the South Kensington Museum and Britain's chief organizer of international exhibitions — as a broad, self-satisfied bureaucrat in a frock coat, one hand tucked into his lapel, the other loosely gripping what appear to be documents. The caption 'Paris Exhibition' anchors him to the 1878 Exposition Universelle, where he led Britain's official participation. Ward exaggerates his stocky silhouette and ruddy, moon-shaped face with a neat grey beard, giving the impression of comfortable institutional power rather than intellectual distinction — the caricaturist's standard treatment for the prosperous civil administrator.

Leslie Ward CC0