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From the exhibition

Sir Daniel Cooper, 2nd Baronet — "Dan"

Leslie Ward · 1908, chromolithograph by Leslie Ward ('Spy'), Vanity Fair supplement

Sir Daniel Cooper, 2nd Baronet — "Dan"
Spy renders Sir Daniel Cooper — Australian-born politician, agent-general for New South Wales, and prominent London clubman — in three-quarter profile, wearing a pinstripe frock coat, bowler hat, and conspicuous orange kid gloves. He holds a small notebook and pencil, a racing-card gesture that places him squarely among the leisured governing class at sport rather than at parliament. The bag slung at his hip reads as a bookmaker's satchel, gently teasing Cooper's financier reputation. The caption 'Dan' signals the familiar nickname of a well-connected insider. Ward's technique is characteristically restrained: the figure is slightly barrel-chested, the moustache silver, the posture proprietary — mild mockery of Establishment comfort with no ethnic edge.

Leslie Ward Public domain