Mr. John Hare

Leslie Ward ('Spy') depicts the actor-manager John Hare in formal evening dress—black tail-coat, white waistcoat, white bow-tie—holding a cigarette aloft in one hand and what appears to be a cigarette case in the other. The caption reads simply Mr. John Hare. The caricature exaggerates Hare's compact, stocky build and heavy-featured face with the practiced economy Ward brought to theatrical subjects: the body is slightly foreshortened, the head enlarged and tilted in a half-skeptical glance. By 1890 Hare was celebrated for his partnership with the Bancrofts at the Prince of Wales's Theatre and for his meticulous naturalistic style—quiet virtues the composed, self-possessed pose quietly flatters.