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.