ComicBook Experience

From the exhibition

'Jour de Ma Vie' — George John Sackville-West, 5th Earl De La Warr

Leslie Ward · Vanity Fair, 30 August 1879; chromolithograph by Leslie Ward ('Spy')

'Jour de Ma Vie' — George John Sackville-West, 5th Earl De La Warr
Ward's plate catches the Earl De La Warr in profile, a posture that lets the artist push his signature exaggerations to the limit: the subject leans forward on a long, thin torso, one hand planted on hip, wearing a naval-style peaked cap, double-breasted dark jacket, and open sandals that strike a deliberately casual, yachting-club note. The caption *Jour de Ma Vie*—'Day of my life,' a phrase of triumphant satisfaction—gently mocks aristocratic self-congratulation. The Earl was a keen yachtsman, and the plate appeared in what the magazine called its 'Yachting Devotees' series, framing leisure as the serious business of the governing class. Ward's caricature is affectionate rather than savage: the elongated nose and stooped silhouette are comic but not cruel, typical of his handling of peers he wished not to offend.

Leslie Ward CC0