From the exhibition
Frank Wootton
Leslie Ward · 1909

Spy (Leslie Ward) presents the champion jockey Frank Wootton in full racing silks: a red-and-gold quartered jacket, cream breeches, brown-topped black boots, and a pale blue cap. He carries a riding crop in his right hand and a saddle tucked under his left arm — the working tools of his trade rendered with the glossy particularity Ward reserved for sporting subjects. Wootton, South African-born and already a prodigy in his teens, was champion jockey in Britain from 1909 to 1912. The caricature is notably mild; Ward flatters more than distorts, giving the boy a composed, almost adult gravity. The caption reads simply *Frank Wootton*, letting the silks and the crop do the identifying work.
Leslie Ward CC0