Diplomatic Dignitaries at National Portrait Gallery

Commissioned by his editor to depict the numerous foreign rulers, who have visited our islands from time to time, Leslie Ward included drawings of foreign statesmen amongst the comic portraits of prominent characters he regularly supplied to Vanity Fair. Living up to his nickname Spy, he acquired these caricatured likenesses for the periodical through covert study as well as impromptu and formal sittings. This displays highlights some of the distinguished foreigners involved in shaping international relations at the turn of the nineteenth-century.