Alfred Deakin, "Australia"

Leslie Ward's 'Spy' renders Alfred Deakin—three-time Prime Minister of the newly federated Commonwealth of Australia—in full evening dress: white waistcoat, white bow tie, dark tail coat. One arm extends dramatically outward, a gesture of oratorical command that suits a man celebrated at Westminster as the colonial world's most eloquent statesman. The caption 'Australia' conflates the politician with the nation he helped forge, flattering rather than diminishing. Ward's caricature is relatively gentle: the goatee and aquiline profile are sharpened but not grotesque, the figure trim and authoritative. Politically, Deakin in 1908 was navigating his third ministry and the fraught 'fusion' negotiations that would eventually unite anti-Labor liberals—a balancing act the pointing hand quietly evokes.