'Good Form' — Mr. John Eldon Bankes, K.C.

Spy depicts Bankes — a King's Counsel of evident self-satisfaction — in full barrister's regalia: black silk gown, white bands at the throat, and the curled horsehair wig that English courts still required. He stands in three-quarter profile, one hand gripping his gown's lapel, the other tucked behind his back. The caption, "Good Form," is ironic in the classic Vanity Fair mode: a compliment edged with mockery of professional vanity. Ward exaggerates the ruddy, well-fed face and portly silhouette common to his legal subjects, suggesting a man more at ease with his own dignity than with any client's distress.