From the exhibition
'Austro-Hungary' — Count Franz Deym
Leslie Ward · Chromolithograph, Vanity Fair, 24 February 1898; signed 'Spy' (Leslie Ward)

Ward depicts Count Franz Deym, Austro-Hungarian Ambassador to London, in confident three-quarter stride, cigar raised between two fingers as though mid-sentence at a Mayfair dinner. The black frock coat, watch-chain, and white pocket square are rendered with Ward's characteristic economy — the silhouette doing most of the social work. The face is the caricaturist's argument: a heavy, slightly pendulous profile with a prominent nose, exaggerated moustache, and half-lidded gaze. Such features were a stock shorthand in late-Victorian illustrated satire for 'continental' otherness, subtly othering a diplomat whose role was, ironically, to smooth Anglo-Austrian relations. The caption 'Austro-Hungary' keeps the joke impersonal — this is a policy embodied, not merely a man.
Leslie Ward CC0