Arthur Coventry ('The Baby')

Spy's chromolithograph presents Arthur Coventry in strict profile, a pose that throws his broad, ruddy face into mild comic relief against his otherwise imposing frame. He wears a long double-breasted dark overcoat, a pale flat cap, and carries a thin riding crop — the complete livery of the racing world. The caption 'The Baby' is the plate's whole joke: Coventry was a steeplechase rider and racing official of considerable reputation, and the nickname (his actual sporting sobriquet) punctures any self-importance the grand coat might project. The humour is purely of class and scale — a large, sober-looking man undone by an affectionate diminutive. This is Men of the Day No. 300, a milestone issue in Vanity Fair's long run of society portraiture.