The Earl of Fife — 'A Princess's Husband'

Leslie Ward ('Spy') renders Alexander Duff, 6th Earl of Fife, in the chromolithograph captioned 'A Princess's Husband' — a pointed reference to his marriage that March to Princess Louise of Wales, eldest daughter of the Prince of Wales. The caption subordinates his Scottish earldom entirely to dynastic acquisition. Ward draws him in white-tie evening dress with a broad green ceremonial sash and a green evening bag bearing a heraldic badge, legs planted wide in the characteristic Spy contrapposto. The figure is rendered without ethnic caricature; the comedy is entirely social — a red-haired Scottish aristocrat whose chief distinction, the magazine implies, is having married extremely well.