This print of the Red Robe judge Sir Fitzroy Kelly was published in the ‘Vanity Fair’ issue of 4 November 1871. The magazine’s owner, Thomas Gibson Bowles (1841-1922), was brought up in a bohemian household and after a short period in the civil service became a journalist. In 1868 he began his own society journal and called it ‘Vanity Fair’. On 30 January 1869 he introduced the first full paged coloured caricature, of Benjamin Disraeli, and sales never looked back. In the words of Matthews and Mellini it was ‘the most successful Society magazine in the history of English journalism’.

Over the lifetime of the magazine nearly two hundred portraits of legal figures were published. Several were depicted ‘wigged’, but only 10 were red robed judges. This unsigned work was the second to be published. Savory described this print as “resplendent in the paraphernalia and the robes of office. The style of the artist is excellent as it captures the pageantry and mystery of the subject.” Amongst his several achievements were his proposal and subsequent success in the abolition of capital punishment, save for offences of murder and high treason. Provenance: private American collection. Arlott (1952); Harris & Ormond (1976); Matthews & Mellini (1982); ODNB; Savory (1979).