Joseph Parker, 'Congregational Union?'

Signed Ape (Carlo Pellegrini) and captioned "Congregational Union?", this chromolithograph from Vanity Fair's 'Men of the Day' series depicts the Reverend Joseph Parker (1830–1902), the thundering Congregationalist divine who presided over London's City Temple. Pellegrini seats him behind a pulpit Bible, swathed in clerical robes, his broad face tilted upward with studied self-importance — the pose of a man accustomed to commanding large audiences. The question mark in the caption is characteristically barbed, alluding to Parker's turbulent relationship with the Congregational Union of England and Wales, whose presidency he held yet whose authority he frequently strained with his combative independence.