Ferdinand James von Rothschild, 'Ferdy'

Signed by the otherwise unidentified artist Hay, this chromolithograph — plate 567 in Vanity Fair's 'Statesmen' series — shows Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild (1839–1898), Austro-born banker, MP for Aylesbury, and builder of Waddesdon Manor, seated on a bench with papers scattered about him, legs casually crossed, one hand resting behind. He wears a double-breasted frock coat, spats, and a top hat that slightly enlarges his silhouette. The caption 'Ferdy' signals aristocratic familiarity. The portrait is comparatively restrained for Vanity Fair; Rothschild's beard and aquiline features are present but not grotesquely amplified in the antisemitic manner common to contemporary caricature of Jewish financiers, suggesting either editorial tact or genuine social regard for a man firmly inside the Victorian establishment.