Robert Farquharson, 'West Aberdeenshire'
Leslie Ward · Vanity Fair, 30 May 1895. Chromolithograph by Leslie Ward ('Spy').
Leslie Ward's plate presents Dr Robert Farquharson, Liberal MP for West Aberdeenshire, in full-length caricature: a silver-haired, heavily mustachioed figure in a double-breasted frock coat, tan trousers, and a tall black top hat, hands planted squarely on his hips. The caption reads simply 'West Aberdeenshire.' Ward exaggerates Farquharson's prominent nose and jutting chin — standard Spy technique for conveying character rather than ethnicity — giving the physician-politician an air of bluff Scottish self-possession. The politics are quietly Liberal: a country doctor elected to Westminster, Farquharson was known for medical reform advocacy, and Ward's composed, confident pose flatters rather than satirises, placing him comfortably among the era's respectable 'Men of the Day.'
About this artifact
- Creator
- Leslie Ward
- Date
- Vanity Fair, 30 May 1895. Chromolithograph by Leslie Ward ('Spy').
- Rights
- Public domain — free to view, share, and reuse.
- Restoration
- Digitally restored and hosted by ComicBooks.com.
Part of our mission to preserve and restore the public-domain heritage of the medium.