Antique Matted Vanity Fair Caricature by Spy: “The Claimant’s Counsel”, 1873

Up for sale is this wonderful caricature of Dr Edward Vaughan Hyde Kenealy QC by Spy (Leslie Ward) from Vanity Fair in excellent, gently-used condition. It is one of several we are currently selling, all matted in 16″ x 20″ pH neutral mats for ease of framing.

Buy It Now and Enjoy – and please see our other listings for more Vanity Fair prints, including a rare double-page chromolithograph by Spy, framed.

The artist, “Spy” (Leslie Ward, 1851-1922), was the magazine’s most famous caricaturist. Over four decades, he painted 1,325 portraits which were regularly published as chromolithographs by Vanity Fair under the pseudonyms “Spy” and “Drawl”. Such was his influence in the genre that all Vanity Fair caricatures are sometimes referred to as “Spy cartoons” regardless of who the artist actually was.
Early portraits, almost always full-length (judges at the bench being the main exception), had a stronger element of caricature and usually distorted the proportions of the body, with a very large head and upper body supported on much smaller lower parts. Later, as he became more accepted by his social peers, and in order not to offend potential sitters, his style developed into what he called “characteristic portraits”. This was less of a caricature and more of an actual portrait of the subject, using realistic body proportions.