'Historic Art' — Men of the Day, No. 74

Signed by Spy (Leslie Ward) and published in *Vanity Fair* as plate No. 268, this chromolithograph caricatures Mr. G. W. Ward under the caption *"Historic Art."* Ward is rendered in three-quarter profile, corpulent and self-possessed, his dark frock coat straining slightly at the middle, grey trousers neatly creased, a watch-chain looped across his waistcoat. The exaggerated jowls and heavy brow — hallmarks of Spy's method — signal pomposity rather than malice; the figure clutches his lapel with the studied ease of a man accustomed to institutional authority. The subtitle *Men of the Day* situates him among the period's cultural establishment. No ethnic caricature is present. The plate is a deft social comedy: the art-world insider rendered, gently but unmistakably, as monument to his own importance.