Thomas Chenery, 'The Times'

Leslie Ward ('Spy') renders Thomas Chenery — editor of The Times since 1877 — in profile, leaning forward with hands clasped behind his back, dressed in a dark frock coat, pale trousers, and a silk top hat. The posture is gently mocking: the rotund, stooped figure suggests a man perpetually bent over proofs. The caption, 'The Times', identifies the institution rather than the man, implying Chenery is inseparable from — perhaps subordinate to — the paper he runs. As an Arabist and former Constantinople correspondent, Chenery brought scholarly gravity to the editorship; Ward's caricature quietly deflates that gravity, reducing a distinguished intellectual to a round, shuffling functionary of Fleet Street's most powerful organ.