'Fitz' — W. Fitzherbert, President, Cambridge University Athletic Club
Leslie Ward · Vanity Fair, 26 March 1896, chromolithograph by Leslie Ward ('Spy')
Ward's plate presents Fitzherbert in three-quarter profile, a young, rosy-cheeked athlete caught mid-pause on a grass strip. The joke is sartorial and physical at once: beneath a voluminous brown double-breasted overcoat — the gentleman's warming robe of the Victorian track — he wears only running whites, bare legs visible where the coat falls open. His hands are pocketed, chin lifted with the easy confidence expected of a Cambridge club president. The caption reads simply Fitz. The comedy is social, gently mocking the sporting amateur's pretension to both athletic vigour and patrician dignity simultaneously.
About this artifact
- Creator
- Leslie Ward
- Date
- Vanity Fair, 26 March 1896, 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.