Forty years of 'Spy'

by Sir Leslie Ward

HENRY KEMBLE. 1907.

H. BEERBOHM TREE. 1890.

GERALD DU MAURIER. 1907.

WILLIAM GILLETT (Sherlock Holmes). 1907.

There is the man one does not dare caricature in his presence, but contents oneself with studying and noting carefully; and the man one thinks one dare caricature and finds to one's surprise that he takes offence; and the man who comes and says, "So-and-so is splendid, you must do him. D'you know old Tommy What's-his-name? he's capital now, ain't he?" and seeing one observing him, "Now I myself, for instance, I've nothing peculiar about me. If you were to caricature me, my friends wouldn't recognize me." Then there is another type who comes to the studio and dictates as to the style of work one must adopt in a particular caricature; and yet another to whom nature has been unkind, and whom one lets down easily because one has a feeling of compassion, as I have said, for people so burdened through no fault of their own. One no longer feels surprise when they say, roaring with laughter, "Very funny, and haven't you been hard on me!... but still it's not bad as a joke!"

Others are very amusing; they come to my studio and settle themselves down as though they were at the photographer's, then suddenly exclaim, "Oh! I forgot. The photographer tells me this is my worst side, I must turn the other towards you if you don't mind." I then thanked him for the tip, as it was the worst I preferred; on one occasion a well-known fighting Colonel who went by the nickname of "Pug" (being so like one) called at my studio to see his caricature which he had been told was very like him. He asked where it was. I said, "On the mantelpiece," which he had already scanned. "No! No!" he uttered; "that is not me. No one could possibly take that for me. I was called 'Bull Dog' in my regiment" (but he was better known as "Pug") "and that thing couldn't possibly fight. You know it yourself. For heaven's sake do me full face." As there was no getting rid of him I was compelled, with a soft heart, to obey; and as I thought I saw a tear in his eye I drew him again. He was much relieved, but I wasn't. In the first caricature I had put the "Pug's" tail on to the crook of his stick which he held behind him, as it so much resembled one. After this I had to keep the profile drawing from publication. But the sensations one experiences on realizing one's profile for the first time, are certainly appalling. When I was a boy I never examined my features at all, I just accepted myself, and got used to seeing my face in the glass as I brushed my hair, and it did not strike me as being specially offensive; I wished, I must say, that nature had been more generous, but my wishes did not worry me or verge into vague longings after extreme beauty, nor did the sight of myself alarm me until one day I went to my tailor's, where the mirrors were many and large, with a clever arrangement enabling the customer to view himself en profile. In the course of the interview a personal view of my coat from the side was required, and gazing into the mirror I glimpsed a sudden impression of my face from the side.

I left the shop, extremely depressed, for I came to the rapid conclusion I looked the sort of person sideways that I should have disliked if I had known him.