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HomeVanity Fair: Men of the DayMen of the Day: The Vanity Fair Caricatures › 'Piety and Banking' — The Hon. Arthur Fitzgerald Kinnaird
'Piety and Banking' — The Hon. Arthur Fitzgerald Kinnaird by Carlo Pellegrini
Public domain · digitally restored by ComicBooks.com
Men of the Day: The Vanity Fair Caricatures

'Piety and Banking' — The Hon. Arthur Fitzgerald Kinnaird

Carlo Pellegrini · Vanity Fair, 15 January 1876

Carlo Pellegrini ('Ape') renders Kinnaird — banker, evangelical philanthropist, and long-serving YMCA president — as a stout, balding figure in formal black frock coat and bow tie, clutching ledger-like papers under both arms. The caption 'Piety and Banking' is the entire argument: it skewers the Victorian habit of yoking commercial power to ostentatious godliness, implying the two interests are rather more compatible than their practitioners admit. Kinnaird was simultaneously a partner in Ransom & Bouverie's bank and a tireless Christian activist; Pellegrini's affectionate but pointed rendering — heavy body, self-satisfied profile — lets the irony do its work without cruelty. The satirical charge is purely one of class and confessional hypocrisy.

About this artifact

Creator
Carlo Pellegrini
Date
Vanity Fair, 15 January 1876
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.