I Spy

Love this little guy!

 

 

 

Like me,

you have probably seen these characters

framed and hanging in homes 

or in antique shops

through the years, haven't you?

I remember someone once telling me

that they were from Vanity Fair magazine

but that's all I really knew about them.

Have had a few clients 

through the years who owned

framed prints of one or more of them.

Do you own any of them?

There are so many interesting images ---

quirky characters.

The artist:

Leslie Ward  -- Sir Leslie Matthew Ward 1851-1922

Meet Leslie Ward.

Mr. Ward was a British portrait artist and caricaturist

who painted 1.325 portraits in a forty year period

that were regularly published in 

Vanity Fair 

under the pseudonyms "Spy" and "Drawl."

His portraits were created as watercolours

which were turned into chromoliths

for the magazine and later printed 

on better paper and sold as prints.

In the beginning he painted his subjects with

exaggerations of features capturing their personality.

But as the years passed and 

he became a member of Society himself, 

 his art became less caricaturistic

and more "characteristic" he admitted 

in an interview

 reflecting back on his career. 

Remarkably,

he believed that caricaturists are born

not made and he painted most of his

subjects by memory. 

I was only able to find two female portraits 

among hundreds and hundreds of men.

I am sure the women were less forgiving

and a tougher crowd to please!

Would love to have a set of jockeys

framed on a wall somewhere.

 

Did you know about 

these Spy cartoons

before reading this?