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HomeVanity Fair: Men of the DayMen of the Day: The Vanity Fair Caricatures › William Arthur Hamar Bass ('Billy')
William Arthur Hamar Bass ('Billy') by Leslie Ward
Public domain · digitally restored by ComicBooks.com
Men of the Day: The Vanity Fair Caricatures

William Arthur Hamar Bass ('Billy')

Leslie Ward · Vanity Fair supplement, 14 September 1905. Chromolithograph by Leslie Ward ('Spy').

Ward draws the young heir to the Bass brewing fortune — captioned 'Billy' with his full name bracketed beneath — as a trim Edwardian sportsman in a dark-red lounge suit, bowler hat, and boutonnière. He carries a leather satchel over one shoulder and holds a small notepad and pencil, the pose suggesting a keen racing man marking his card rather than a man of business. The caricature is mild: a slight elongation of the torso, an upward tilt to the chin suggesting well-bred self-assurance. No ethnic distortion is present. The gentle mockery here is purely social — wealth worn lightly, leisure taken seriously — entirely typical of Spy's treatment of affluent, uncontroversial young gentlemen of the Edwardian upper class.

About this artifact

Creator
Leslie Ward
Date
Vanity Fair supplement, 14 September 1905. Chromolithograph by Leslie Ward ('Spy').
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.