Leslie Ward

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Portrait of Hamo Thornycroft by Leslie Ward for Vanity Fair magazine

Sir Leslie Ward (21 November 1851 – 15 May 1922), was a British portrait artist and caricaturist. The son of artists Edward Matthew Ward and Henrietta Ward, he drew or painted numerous portraits which were regularly published by Vanity Fair, under the pseudonym "Spy".

After seeing a caricature of Professor Owen by Ward, Sir John Millais introduced Ward to Thomas Gibson Bowles - the founder of the magazine - and, on 7 November 1868, Ward joined the staff alongside Carlo Pellegrini (known as "Ape" or "Singe") where he contributed work for forty years.

In an 1897 interview given by Oliver Armstrong Fry (editor of Vanity Fair) to Frank Banfield of Cassell's Magazine, it was reported that Ward received a sum of between £300 and £400 for a portrait.