Rudolf Carl von Slatin ('Slatin'), Men of the Day No. 752

Ward's plate caricatures Rudolf Carl von Slatin, the Austrian-born soldier who served the Khedive of Egypt, was captured and held prisoner by the Mahdi for eleven years in Sudan, and emerged in 1895 a celebrated imperial figure. The caption reads 'Slatin'. The central figure — hands thrust in pockets, fur-collared overcoat, waxed moustache — projects confident Viennese swagger. Flanking him in the upper corners are lightly sketched thumbnail portraits of an Ottoman-uniformed dignitary (left) and a turbaned Sudanese figure (right). These vignettes frame Slatin as the central protagonist. The composition is period-typical in both its wit and its hierarchy.