The Penny Bank by Sir George Harvey continues a tradition of contemporary narrative genre. The scene is set in Leith, Edinburgh's port. The artist explains his painting in the RSA catalogue, saying it was ‘suggested by the Vinegar Close Penny Bank formed in Leith eleven years ago since which time there has been received in pence the sum of £5,400, crumbs gathered from the tables of the poor.' The Rev Henry Duncan had previously invented the world's first savings bank for his parishioners in Ruthwell, Dumfriesshire, in 1810, transforming banking.

Sir George Harvey, 1806-76

Sir George Frederick Harvey,  was born at 59 Main Street, St Ninians, near Stirling and died at 21 Regent Terrace in Edinburgh. His passion for art having grown as a child, he enrolled in the Trustees' Academy on Picardy Place in Edinburgh in his eighteenth year. Harvey is best known for his Scottish history paintings and contemporary narrative scenes. Many of his subjects, intended to elicit an emotional response, displayed the same close observation of character, artistic conception, and conscientious elaboration of details. Harvey joined the Royal Scottish Academy in 1826 and succeeded Sir John Watson Gordon as president in 1864, a position he held until 1876. Three years later, in 1867, he was knighted. In 1839, Harvey had married Eliza Margaret Carstairs, with whom he had two daughters. He married Margaret Muir in 1944 after Eliza's death and had another daughter in 1847. Nellie Harvey (1865-1949), his niece, was also a painter.