Benjamin Franklin (1706 - 1790).
A Carved Wooden Bust.
after the original by Jean Jaques Caffieri.
no earlier than 1777.
at the Chipstone Foundation.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
Part 1.
A Brief Survey of the Portraiture of Benjamin Franklin.
Part 1.
A Brief Survey of the Portraiture of Benjamin Franklin.
Some notes.
The Pennsylvania Hospital bust is now presumed lost.
Luke Beckerdite and Alan Miller have written extensively on the subject of this carved wooden bust in 2016 see -
http://www.chipstone.org/article.php/752/American-Furniture-2016/A-Philadelphia-Carved-Bust-of-Benjamin-Franklin
I have used some of their photographs to illustrate this post.
I have used some of their photographs to illustrate this post.
For the Portraits of Franklin see - See Charles Coleman Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 1962).
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An up to date survey of the portraiture of Benjamin Franklin would make a very large study on its own - for the time being I will just brush the surface here.
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I have also used here the photographs and information from the truly excellent in depth study of the French Benjamin Franklin busts by Pamela Ehrlich.
Published. 31 May 2016.
This article was originally published in the Summer 2016
issue of Antiques & Fine Art magazine, a digitized version of which is
available at afamag.com. AFA is affiliated with incollect.com.
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Benjamin Franklin
American
attributed to Martin Jugiez
Photograph Courtesy Chipstone website.
Plaster Bust of Franklin by Caffieri alongside the Chipstone Bust for comparison.
Franklin made three trips to Paris in 1767, 1769 and 1776 to 1785.
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Benjamin Franklin
Jean Jaques Caffieri
Terracotta
1777.
27" x 17" x 12.2" (not including base).
Bibleotheque Mazarine, Paris
The original terra cotta bust of Franklin above, exhibited at the Paris Salon of 1777. Caffieri is not known to have created a marble version of the
Franklin bust, but he made a mould from the terracotta original, which allowed
him to cast multiple plaster busts for sale.
Franklin was one of his best customers. Between 1778 and 1785, Franklin ordered at least eight plaster busts from Caffieri for family and friends.
Franklin was one of his best customers. Between 1778 and 1785, Franklin ordered at least eight plaster busts from Caffieri for family and friends.
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Benjamin Franklin
Jean-Jacques Caffieri (1725–1792).
Plaster.
From the original 1777 mould.
Purchased by King Stanislaus
from Caffieri in 1784.
Courtesy of Royal Castle Museum in Warsaw, Poland
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The Plaster Bust of Benjamin Franklin by Jean Jaques Caffieri originally presented to the French Academy of Sciences, Paris in 1785 by Benjamin Franklin.
It was presented by a grateful French people in the 1949 "Merci Train" of gifts to America for its part in relieving France of the Nazi yolk.
see -
Pamela Ehrlich, an independent researcher, approached
the Luther W. Brady Art Gallery with information that they might have an
important bust of Dr. Franklin in their collection.
A bust of similar
description was acquired in 1987 when the George Washington University assumed
ownership of the former Benjamin Franklin University.
As the merger occurred,
Director, University Art Galleries and Chief Curator, Lenore Miller was asked
to assess any works of art. That’s when she came upon a plaster bust of Dr.
Franklin, painted with bronze paint. Ms. Miller believed that the bust might
have some historical significance and made sure it was safely stored as part of
George Washington University's collection in an off-site, secure storage facility.
Ms. Ehrlich had discovered an April 1949 newspaper
photograph showing a Jean-Jacques Caffieri bust of Dr. Franklin from the Merci
Train being presented to the Benjamin Franklin University.
In addition, Ms.
Ehrlich found an 1879 French government inventory of art that recordedinscription on the bust Dr. Franklin gave to the French Academy of
Sciences––which includes J.-J. Caffieri's signature and the words “L’Academie
des Sciences.” If this inscription is on the GWU sculpture it aids in proving
it is the Merci Train bust unfortunately any inscription is obscured by overpainting.
Benjamin Franklin
Jean Jaques Caffieri
Plaster Bust
Height 28".
George Washington University.
The George Washington University Permanent Collection, courtesy of The Luther W. Brady Art Gallery.
© 2015 The George Washington University.
Detail, rear view of the bust .
The George
Washington University Permanent Collection, courtesy of The Luther W. Brady Art
Gallery.
© 2015 The George Washington University.
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Once again for much more on the Caffieri and Houdon busts of Franklin see the very excellent article by Pamela Ehrlich -
https://www.incollect.com/articles/the-royal-academy-of-sciences-bust-of-benjamin-franklin
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Benjamin Franklin
Marble Bust
Height 28"
An fairly early copy c. 1803/04 after Caffieri.
American Philosophical Society
Philadelphia.
https://amphilsoc.pastperfectonline.com/webobject/DF4E38B0-44C6-4A5A-A8FD-666004319406
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Benjamin Franklin
Marble Bust
Height 28"
An fairly early copy c. 1803/04 after Caffieri.
Many portraits of Franklin were created when he served as
ambassador to France from 1776 to 1785, but the only sculptor granted a sitting
with the great man was Jean-Jacques Caffiéri.
The character study Caffiéri made
in 1777 (now at London’s Royal Academy of Arts) would eventually spawn a
mini-industry in Franklin busts, both in America and abroad.
Caffiéri’s Paris
studio probably executed about twenty copies from the original plaster bust,
and later artists made many more.
John Rhea Smith presented this marble
portrait bust, carved by an unidentified sculptor, to the APS in 1804. In his
letter of gift, Smith wrote that the bust "is of Italian workmanship, executed
at Florence, & from my imperfect recollection of the Doctor’s features,
would seem to be a good likeness."
Gifted to APS in 1804.
American Philosophical Society
Philadelphia.
https://amphilsoc.pastperfectonline.com/webobject/DF4E38B0-44C6-4A5A-A8FD-666004319406
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Jean Antoine Houdon (1741 - 1828).
Terracotta
Inscribed on proper right shoulder Houdon f. 1778.
and on the back franKlin
This is possibly the bust exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1778, no. 221.
Although there are arguments for that being a marble.
It was sold at the posthumous sale of the contents of Houdon's studio -
15 - 17 December 1728. Lot 27 Purchased by Francois Hyppolite Walferdin ( 1795 - 1880).
Sold by his heirs to the Louvre in 1880
There was another version sold in a sale at Houdons studio - lot 98 8 October 1795 which has disappeared.
Inscribed on proper right shoulder Houdon f. 1778.
and on the back franKlin
This is possibly the bust exhibited at the Paris Salon in 1778, no. 221.
Although there are arguments for that being a marble.
It was sold at the posthumous sale of the contents of Houdon's studio -
15 - 17 December 1728. Lot 27 Purchased by Francois Hyppolite Walferdin ( 1795 - 1880).
Sold by his heirs to the Louvre in 1880
There was another version sold in a sale at Houdons studio - lot 98 8 October 1795 which has disappeared.
See: Jean - Antoine Houdon - Catalogue National Gallery of Art Washington, 2004.
Louvre. Paris.
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Jean Antoine Houdon (1741 - 1828).
Marble
Overall: 58.7 × 36.8 × 28.6 cm,
Height without base): 44.5 cm
1778
Provenance:
Jean Antoine Houdon; left by Houdon with Robert Edge Pine;
possibly Pierre Samuel du Pont de Nemours (by 1785 and in 1802); possibly
Eleuthère Irénée du Pont ; possibly Nicholas Cruger ; or his daughter-in-law,
Catharine Church; her husband, Betram Peter Cruger ; their son, John Church
Cruger , New York (by 1836) ; his son and daughter-in-law, Dr. and Mrs. Samuel
Bard , New York ; their son, John Bard (until 1872; to MMA)
Gifted by John Bard.
Metropolitan Museum, New York.
_______________
Bust of Benjamin Franklin
Jean-Antoine Houdon, Versailles 1741 – 1828 Paris. Benjamin
Franklin, ca. 1786.
Plaster, painted terracotta colour,
33 1/8 x 26 ¼ x 16 3/16
in.
Gift of the estate of George Francis Parkman,
1908.Boston Athenaeum.
Only one other version of this bust is known - the other example is at the Musée des Beaux-Arts, Angers, France.
https://www.bostonathenaeum.org/about/publications/selections-acquired-tastes/busts-franklin-and-lafayette-jean-antoine-houdon
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Benjamin Franklin
Houdon
Marble
Height with socle 53.3 cms.
Inscribed F.P.HOUDON EN 1779.
Commisioned fro Houdon by an unknown client
This bust is considered altogether finer than the bust in the Metropolitan Museum New York
Provenance:
by 1828, A noble family château du Mont-Jarry, Avranches (Manche), (according to the marquise Franco d'Almodovar, née Marcelle de Loterie
de Presle, in Sotheby's sale catalaogue, 1996, which reproduces a handwritten
certificate from the marquise) [unconfirmed]
Paris, art market.
by 1939, New York, Clapp and Graham -
1975, November 29, New York, Sotheby Parke Bernet, sold as
"property from the collection of the late Geraldine Rockefeller
Dodge", no. 124 -
1996, December 5, New York, Sotheby's, no. 78.
1996, 125th Anniversary Acquisition. Purchased with a
generous grant from The Barra Foundation, Inc., matched by contributions from
the Henry P. McIlhenny Fund in memory of Frances P. McIlhenny, the Walter E. Stait
Fund, the Fiske Kimball Fund, and with funds contributed by Mr. and Mrs. Jack
M. Friedland, Hannah L. and J. Welles Henderson, Mr. and Mrs. E. Newbold Smith,
Mr. and Mrs. Mark E. Rubenstein, Mr. and Mrs. John J. F. Sherrerd, The Women's
Committee of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Marguerite and Gerry Lenfest,
Leslie A. Miller and Richard B. Worley, Mr. and Mrs. John A. Nyheim, Mr. and
Mrs. Robert A. Fox, Stephanie S. Eglin, an anonymous donor, Mr. and Mrs.
William T. Vogt, and with contributions from individual donors to the Fund for
Franklin
Photographs and Text above courtesy:
Philadelphia Museum of Art
http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/permanent/90227.html?mulR=625468890|32
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Benjamin Franklin.
John Flaxman.
After Houdon.
not signed or dated.
Plaster.
Height 28".
It differs from the Houdon bust in that it lacks definition and has no collar or neckerchief
From this photograph it appears to have been recently repainted
During an 1801 tour of Europe, artist and APS member Joseph
Sansom acquired this portrait bust of Benjamin Franklin, cast by English
neoclassical artist John Flaxman. Copied after an original bust by French
sculptor Jean Antoine Houdon, the Flaxman bust is smoother, less detailed, and
less animated than Houdon's celebrated version. Despite its deviations from the
original, the Flaxman bust proved popular in America.
After this bust's
presentation to the APS in 1802, sculptor Hiram Powers used it as a source for
a full-length statue of Benjamin Franklin for the U.S. Capitol Building.
Presented to the American Philosophical Society 1802.
American Philosophical Society
The Studio of Houdon.
Leopold Boilly.
1803.
Depicting a bust of Franklin on the shelf on the right.
Musee des Arts Decoratif a Paris.
Another Painting of Houdon in his Studio.
Leopold Boilly.
1804.
__________________________________
1804.
__________________________________
Benjamin Franklin
After the bust by Houdon
Thomas Hollaway
Engraving
170 x 110 mm.
Late 18th / Early 19th Century.
British Museum
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Benjamin Franklin
by Michael Rysbrack
Marble Bust.
Sold Sotheby's, London
The catalogue is slightly disingenuous - it fails to mention that this bust has been outside in the weather at some time in its life and consequently the surface and original polish has been lost.
All images above courtesy Sotheby's
http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2014/european-sculpture-works-art-l14231/lot.141.html
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Wedgwood and Benjamin Franklin.
A few nots and some images.
Wedgwood
After Caffieri
1777 - 1800.
7 x 5.7 cms
Metropolitan Museum.
by Michael Rysbrack
Marble Bust.
Sold Sotheby's, London
The catalogue is slightly disingenuous - it fails to mention that this bust has been outside in the weather at some time in its life and consequently the surface and original polish has been lost.
Sotheby's
Lot 141, 10 July 2014.
Provenance
Patrick Crawley, Esq., Yorkshire, United Kingdom;
his sale, Christie's London, 24 April 1986, lot 89;
Private collection, United Kingdom.
Rysbrack would have carved his portrait of Franklin whilst
he was working in London as agent for the Pennsylvania assembly,
first between 1757 and 1762, and later between 1762 and 1775.
The sculptor died
in 1770, providing a terminus ante quem for the execution of the bust.
It is most likely that Rysbrack made this bust on Franklins first visit to Britain, as his later stay was disrupted by the lead up to the American Wars of
Independence.
Franklin wrote to his friend Lord Kames, on 3 January 1760, and describes ‘the busts of
famous men’ in Viscount Cobham’s Temple of British Worthies at Stowe (Franklin,
Writings, op. cit., vol. iv).
Franklin was a comparatively wealthy man by the time he arrived
in London in 1757, and so would easily have been able to commission a bust from Rysbrack.
Rysbrack was also responsible for a portrait bust of Newton (terracotta at
Trinity College, Cambridge), which, interestingly, may be the bust that appears
in one of the earliest paintings of Franklin, painted by David Martin in 1762
(Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts; inv. no. 1943.16.1) (the sculpture included
by Martin could alternatively be the model by Louis-Francois Roubiliac).
http://www.sothebys.com/en/auctions/ecatalogue/2014/european-sculpture-works-art-l14231/lot.141.html
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Wedgwood and Benjamin Franklin.
A few nots and some images.
Wedgwood
After Caffieri
1777 - 1800.
7 x 5.7 cms
Metropolitan Museum.
........................................................
Benjamin Franklin
Wedgwood and Bentley
Jaspar Ware
4.1"
c. 1775 - 80.
British Museum
____________________________
Benjamin Franklin.
Wedgwood & Bentley.
Jasparware.
10.8"
c. 1779.
British Museum.
_________________________
Benjamin Franklin.
Wedgwood & Bentley.
After the terracotta by Nini (see below).
Jasparware
3.3".
c. 1777 - 80.
British Museum.
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Image from:
https://www.rarelegacy.com/products/1769-benjamin-franklin-wedgwood-black-basalt-portrait-medallion-earliest-franklin-sculpture
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Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790).
Jean Baptiste Nini (1717-1786).
Benjamin Franklin
Wedgwood and Bentley
Jaspar Ware
4.1"
c. 1775 - 80.
British Museum
____________________________
Benjamin Franklin.
Wedgwood & Bentley.
Jasparware.
10.8"
c. 1779.
British Museum.
_________________________
Benjamin Franklin.
Wedgwood & Bentley.
After the terracotta by Nini (see below).
Jasparware
3.3".
c. 1777 - 80.
British Museum.
__________________________________
3 3/8" X 2 5/8"
Image from:
https://www.rarelegacy.com/products/1769-benjamin-franklin-wedgwood-black-basalt-portrait-medallion-earliest-franklin-sculpture
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Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790).
Jean Baptiste Nini (1717-1786).
Relief with a preliminary model for the terracotta portrait relief with spectacles.
3½ inches diameter.,
Chaumont-sur-Loire, France, circa 1777.
The final version of the terracotta model on the right. 4½ inches diameter.
In June of 1779 Franklin wrote to his daughter Deborah in
Philadelphia: "The clay medallion you say you gave to Mr. Hopkinson was
the first of the kind made in France. A variety of others have been made since
of different sizes; some to be set in the lids of snuffboxes, and some so small
as to be worn in rings; and the numbers sold are incredible. These, with the
pictures, busts, and prints, (of which copies upon copies are spread
everywhere), have made your father's face as well known as that of the moon...It
is said by learned etymologists, that the name doll, for the images children
play with, is derived from the word IDOL. From the number of dolls now made of
him, he may be truly said, in that sense, to be i-doll-ized in this
country."
Image and text from Christie's.
https://www.christies.com/lotfinder/Lot/franklin-benjamin-1706-1790-nini-jean-baptiste-5546039-details.aspx
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Benjamin Franklin
Terracotta
121 mm diam.
Jean Baptiste Nini (1717 - 86)
France
1777.
National Portrait Gallery
Inscribed "B. FRANKLIN, AMERICAIN."
Jean
Baptiste Nini, was an Italian sculptor born in Urbino working in Paris for Jacques Donatien Le Ray de
Chaumont, a well-known businessman, who held various official posts in Chaumont,
France, who was a friend of Franklin's and had given him the use of his chateau
there.
Nini had previously commissioned a medallion of Chaumont in 1771, and
Chaumont now sent Nini a profile drawing of Franklin that had been given to
him.
The history of the Nini medallions originates in
pro-American, Parisian society. Chaumont was occupied with contracting for
supplies, shipping gunpowder and other things to America. Many other business
dealings between Paris and major seaports were occurring as well. Some of the
people Franklin surrounded himself with were Dr. Bancroft, a physician and
naturalist (also Franklin's secretary in Paris), Jonathan Williams, William
Alexander, and English banker Thomas Walpole and his 22-year-old son.
On December
11, 1777, Franklin sent a letter to Thomas Walpole, saying, "From a sketch
Dr. B[ancroft] had which was drawn by your ingenious and valuable Son, they
have made Medallions in terre-cuit." This letter acknowledged that a
drawing of Franklin done by the younger Walpole had been sent to the Chaumont
factory to make the famous terra cotta medallion.
Chaumont and Franklin's other acquaintances not only saw him
as a personal friend, but as a key figure in their success as businessmen. They
had to establish him as a symbol in order to sell him to the general public.
The intention of the first Nini medallion was to present a popular figure in a
simple, popular way.
The Franklin medallions appear in five types, believed to
be made from drawings sent to Nini from Paris, rather than drawings done of his
own hand. Anne Vallayer, Sevres, and Wedgwood were among those who produced
drawings for later medallions.
In his lifetime Nini created over one hundred of this type of relief.
Other versions are at:
American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia (58.S.74; given
to Charles Willson Peale between 7/1778 and 10/1779 by M. Gerard, first French
Minister to US).
The Franklin Institute, Philadelphia.
National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution,
Washington, D.C. (NPG.66.12 and NPG.66.13).
Philadelphia Museum of Art (1986-26-290.
National Portrait Gallery, London, NPG 722.
Text here partly adapted from
https://www.fi.edu/history-resources/nini-medallion
_______________________
Benjamin Franklin.
Jean Baptiste Nini.
14.9 cms.
Stoneware.
1779.
Metropolitan Museum New York
________________________
Benjamin Franklin
Jean Baptiste Nini
Plaster
10.8 cms
Late 18th Century
Metropolitan Museum
________________________
Benjamin Franklin
Jean Baptiste Nini
Plaster
10.8 cms
Late 18th Century
Metropolitan Museum New York
_________________________
Benjamin Franklin
Attributed to Francois Marie Suzanne (active 1751 - 1802).
Late 18th Century
Terracotta
38.7 × 16.2 × 14.6 cm.
Metropolitan Museum
New York.
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Benjamin Franklin
with the bust of Isaac Newton
David Martin
Oil on panel.
50" x 40"
1767
This portrait of Benjamin Franklin was commissioned by Robert
Alexander, of the firm of William Alexander & Sons, Edinburgh. The document held by Franklin is one of Alexander's deeds!
The bust of Isaac Newton, suggests the great English voice of Reason.
Gift of Mr & Mrs Walter H. Annenberg
White House, Washington D.C.
see -
http://english18thcenturyportraitsculpture.blogspot.com/2016/03/the-roubiliac-busts-of-isaac-newton.html
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The portrait by Duplessis, (below) official portraitist of Louis XVI, is one of the most popular
image of Franklin.
Benjamin Franklin
Joseph Siffred Duplessis (1725 - 1802)
Painted c. 1778.
oil on canvas 75.5 x 58.5 cms canvas size.
Image Courtesy Petit Palais, Museum of Fine Arts, Paris.
_______________________
Benjamin Franklin
Workshop of Joseph Siffred Duplessis (French, Carpentras
1725–1802 Versailles)
Oil on Canvas
70.2 x 56.5 cms
This is a replica of the portrait exhibited at the Salon of
1779.
It is inscribed (reverse, possibly by the artist, now covered by relining
canvas; see below: Peint par Duplessis pour / obliger
monsieur le vicomte / De Buissy (painted by Duplessis to oblige the vicomte de
Buissy)
Gifted 1895
Metropolitan Museum, New York
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Benjamin Franklin.
Joseph Wright of Derby (1756 - 93).
1782.
Oil on Canvas.
75.5 x 64 cms.
Royal Society. London.
Presented by Caleb Whitefoord in 1790
Image Courtesy Art UK.
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Benjamin Franklin
Charles Wilson Peale
Oil on canvas, Historical
Society of Pennsylvania Collection, Gift of James J. Barclay, 1852,
Philadelphia History Museum Collection.
There are three versions of this painting.
see - https://www.jstor.org/stable/3143558?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents
__________________________
Benjamin Franklin
Mason Chamberlin
Oil on canvas
128 x 103.5 cms
1762
gifted 1956.
Philadelphia Museum
______________________________
Benjamin Franklin with a map of Philadelphia
Anne Marie Boquet Filleul.
Oil on canvas
91.1 x 72.4 cms
1778 or 79.
Gift of the Honorable Walter H. Annenberg and Leonore
Annenberg and the Annenberg Foundation,
2007.
Filleul and her husband were on friendly terms with Benjamin
Franklin, who may have sat for this portrait as a personal favor. In 1779 Louis
Jacques Cathelin (1738-1804) made an engraving after the painting that was
published the same year by Filleul's father, Blaise Bocquet. The map on the
table is labeled PHILADELPHIA.
Image courtesy Philadelphia Museum of Art.
___________________________
Benjamin Franklin,
1706–1790.
Joseph Siffred Duplessis (1725–1802)
Oil on canvas, c. 1785
Gift of the Morris and Gwendolyn Cafritz
Foundation
Image courtesy Smithsonian. National Portrait Gallery
______________________________
Benjamin Franklin
after Benjamin Wilson (1721 - 88).
James McArdell (1729 - 65)
Mezzotint
1761
_____________________________
Benjamin Franklin -
né à Boston, dans la nouvelle
Angleterre, le 17 Janv. 1706 /
Duplessis pinxit, Parisiis 1778 ;
Chevillet
sculpsit.
engraving.
1778.
______________________________
Benjamin Franklin.
Ne a Boston, dans la nouvelle Angleterre
le 17 Janvier 1706.
After Charles-Nicolas Cochin. Engraved by
Augustin de Saint Aubin.
7 1/2 x 5 1/4″.
1777.
______________________
Benjamin Franklin
Charles Nicholas Cochin
1770 - 1780
Mezzotint
153 x 113 mm
British Museum
Franklin
Charles Nicholas Cochin
Mezzotint.
365 x 240 mm.
c.1777.
pub. Augsburg.
British Museum.
____________________________
Benjamin Franklin.
Mezzotint.
after Mason Chamberlin.
British Museum.
______________________
Benjamin Franklin.
Anonymous engraving.
166 x 1114 mm.
late 18th century.
British Museum.
_____________________________
Benjamin Franklin.
Charles Wilson Peale (1741 -1827).
16.2 x 13 cms
Mexzzotint.
1787
Metropolitan Museum
______________________________
Further reading:
____________________
The National Portrait Gallery Website
Mid-Georgian Portraits Catalogue - Benjamin Franklin
This extended catalogue entry is from the out-of-print National Portrait Gallery collection catalogue: John Ingamells, National Portrait Gallery: Mid-Georgian Portraits 1760-1790, National Portrait Gallery, 2004, and is as published then.
I have slightly adapted this for my web post but it remains substantially the same as posted by the NPG on their website
Biography and References
‘Numberless are the prints & medals we have seen of you’
(Georgiana Shipley to Franklin, 1 May 1779; C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in
Portraiture, 1962, p 267).
‘A variety of [clay medallions] have been made of different
sizes; some to be set in the lids of snuffboxes, and some so small as to be
worn in rings; and the numbers sold are incredible. These, with the pictures,
busts and prints, (of which copies upon copies are spread everywhere) have made
your father’s face as well known as that of the moon...’ (Franklin to his
daughter, 3 June 1779; C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, 1962,
pp 107-08).
A discriminating survey of Franklin’s formidable iconography
was made by Sellers in 1962; the ensuing list is generally confined to the more
important images.
__________________
London 1757-62
1757
Miniature by C. Dixon. Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Mass.
(C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pl.2). Sent by Franklin
to his wife in January 1758.
1759
Painting by Benjamin Wilson, half length, with lightning
striking a church spire in the left background. White House, Washington (illus.
W. Kloss et al., Art in the White House, 1992, p 55; C. C. Sellers, Benjamin
Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pls.2, 3). Wilson painted two replicas, the
second c.1765, for Dr Thomas Bond, and a three-quarter length version was with
Knoedler, New York, 1962; engraved J. McArdell 1761 (C. C. Sellers, Benjamin
Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pl.2); J. Chapman (oval) 1806; S. Freeman; W.
Haines (half length) 1806. Like Franklin, Wilson had experimented with
electricity and lightning conductors.
1762
Painting by Mason Chamberlin, three-quarter length seated,
lightning to the left. Philadelphia Museum of Art (illus. C. C. Sellers,
Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pl.4). Commissioned by Col. Philip
Ludwell. Exhibited Society of Artists, London, 1763 (19). Engraved E. Fisher
1763; F. N. Martinet 1773; J. Lodge (bust length). A replica, since destroyed,
painted for Franklin’s son 1764. Copy by George D. Leslie (Yale University Art
Gallery); a 19th-century miniature copy (private collection, Philadelphia,
probably from the Wellesley collection; C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in
Portraiture, 1962, pp 226-27); an anon. medal of 1777, bust length wearing a
cap (C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pl.5), taken from
Lodge’s engraving.
c.1762-72
Painting by Matthew Pratt, half length. American Scenic and
Historic Preservation Society, Yonkers, NY (C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in
Portraiture, 1962, pl.3). Derived from the Wilson half length of 1759.
In London 1766-75
1766
Wax profile by Isaac Gosset (C. C. Sellers, Benjamin
Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, p 294). American Philosophical Society,
Philadelphia, and Dr Philip Bate 1962 (C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in
Portraiture, 1962 pl.9). Copied as a Wedgwood medallion and cameo (illus. R.
Reilly and G. Savage, Wedgwood the Portrait Medallions, 1973, p 146, as c.1775
and after Patience Wright); by James Tassie (C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin
in Portraiture, 1962, pl.9) and for a medal formerly attributed to William Mossop
(C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pl.9).
Painting by David Martin, half-length seated at table,
wearing glasses. White House, Washington (C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in
Portraiture, 1962, pl.8; W. Kloss et al., Art in the White House, 1992, p 56).
Exhibited Society of Artists, London, 1767 (99). Replica of 1767 in the
Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, bequeathed by Franklin;
another dated 1772 with Dr A. J. Alexander, Lexington Ky., in 1962. Copied by
C. W. Peale (American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia) and reduced copies
at Chevening and Brocklesby Park; a miniature enamel copy by Jeremiah Meyer in
the Buccleuch collection (illus. D. Foskett, A Dictionary of British Miniature
Painters, 1972, II, pl.232, no.582).
1770
Painting by Henry Bembridge, exhibited RA 1770, no.14 (C. C.
Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pp 190-92).
1772
Wax busts by Patience Wright, life size (C. C. Sellers,
Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pp 426-29). In 1781 in Paris Wright
also made a wax head of Franklin for Elkanah Watson, now destroyed.
Undated
Painting by Caleb Whitefoord, untraced; ‘acknowledged to
bear a strong and striking likeness’ (D. Allen, Connoisseur, CXC, 1975, p 197).
Whitefoord was Franklin’s neighbour in London and he also attended the Paris
peace commission in 1782.
Paris 1776-85
From 1776 Franklin continually wore spectacles.
1777
Plaster bust by Claude Dejoux. Musée de la Coopération
Franco-Américaine, Château de Blérancourt, Aisne (C. C. Sellers, Benjamin
Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pl.15), probably antedating the Caffiéri bust.
Plaster bust by L-P. Dufourny de Villiers. D. A. Bernstein,
Sound Beach, Conn., in 1930 (C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture,
1962, pl.15).
Medallions by J-B. Nini, see NPG 722.
Terracotta bust by J-J. Caffiéri, with long hair and
neckcloth. Bibliothèque Mazarine, Paris (C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in
Portraiture, 1962, pl.16). Casts include those with the Institut de France
(1785); Royal Society of Arts, London (c.1777-90), and Bowdoin College,
Brunswick, Maine, c.1785; four were bought by Franklin for his family, and
others ordered for Sir Edward Newenham, Dublin (1783), William Carmichael
(1785), and the Pennsylvania Hospital, Philadelphia.
Marble copies include, in Philadelphia: at the American
Philosophical Society, and with the Home [formerly Franklin] Insurance Co.; in
Washington: at the NPG (69.61) and the White House (illus. W. Kloss et al., Art
in the White House, 1992, p 359); the Public Library, Boston MA; the Detroit
Institute of Arts and in the Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif.
A number of derivative Sèvres medallions 1778-79 (C. C.
Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pls.12-14), frequently
engraved; copied by James Tassie as an intaglio seal, and at Wedgwood (illus.
R. Reilly and G. Savage, Wedgwood the Portrait Medallions, 1973, p 147).
Painting by J-B. Greuze, half length in fur-collared coat.
Sotheby’s, New York, 30 January 1998, lot 120 (illus. Art Quarterly, XXVI,
1963, p 2). An oval replica with the American Philosophical Society,
Philadelphia, and preliminary pastel study with the Dept. of State, Washington
DC (C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pl.22).
Pastel copies by Simon Petit (exhibited Salon de la
Correspondence 1781, no.7) and J-S-L. Piot (musée Cantonal, Lausanne); copies
in oil by G. P. A. Healy (Versailles) and Joseph Gaye (Sotheby’s, 20 March
1978, lot 51); miniature copies by Louis de Broux 1777 (French private
collection) and by D. C. 1785 (Sotheby’s, 16 May 1957, lot 37, inscribed
d'apres Duplessis).
Drawing by C-N. Cochin, half length with fur hat, engraved
A. de Saint Aubin (illus. C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture,
1962, pl.10). Copied by John Trumbull (Yale University Art Gallery). Enamel
copy in the Victoria and Albert Museum (414.1810.1885; B. Rackham , Catalogue
of the Schreiber Collection, Victoria and Albert Museum, III, Enamels and
Glass, 1924, pl.45) from the engraving by G. Cooke. A medal by J. M. Lageman
1790 derived from the Cochin portrait.
1778-79
Wedgwood medallions, modelled by William Hackwood 1778,
produced in several sizes (C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture,
1962, pl.11); a variant, with longer hair at the neck, also attributed to
Hackwood (illus. R. Reilly and G. Savage, Wedgwood the Portrait Medallions,
1973, p 145, as c.1775); another was produced in 1779, with a smaller variant
(illus. R. Reilly and G. Savage, Wedgwood the Portrait Medallions, 1973, p
148).
Terracotta medallions by J-B. Nini from a drawing by Anna
Vallayer-Coster, classical profiles to left (A. C. Baiardi & B. Sibille,
eds., J B Nini, exhibition catalogue, Urbino, Blois, 2001, nos.95-98):
a) with longer hair, inscribed: eripuit coelo fulmen
sceptrumque tirannis
b) with shorter hair, inscribed in French.
1778
Painting by J-S. Duplessis, oval, similar to NPG 327 but
wearing a red coat with brown fur collar. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
(32.100.132; C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pl.24).
Exhibited Salon 1779 (128). Engraved J. Chevillet 1778 (C. C. Sellers, Benjamin
Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pl.27); P. A. Tardieu 1795, and J. Thomson 1834.
Duplessis exhibited another version at the Salon 1821 (128).
The many copies include those at Boston, Mass., in the
Athenaeum (C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pl.26) and
Public Library; in Philadelphia, in the Independence Hall (C. C. Sellers,
Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pl.26) and Mutual [formerly Franklin]
Assurance; at New York, with the Historical Society and in the Metropolitan
Museum of Art, New York (95.21); others are in Yale University Library, the
Fogg Art Museum (1943.235) and the Huntington Library, San Marino (pastel), and
in France in the musées at Douai and Brest.
Miniature versions attributed to A. N. B. Graincourt
(Philadelphia Museum of Art), and by Francis Lainé (exhibited RA 1786, no.283;
see C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pl.24).
Pastel by J-S. Duplessis, see NPG 327.
Terracotta bust by J-A. Houdon, wearing coat and waistcoat
showing one button and two empty buttonholes. Louvre (C. C. Sellers, Benjamin
Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pl.18). Exhibited Salon 1779 (221). Franklin was
given four casts; others include those in the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, Cambridge, Mass.; Schlossmuseum, Gotha; City Art Museum, Saint Louis,
and Museum of Art, Toledo, Ohio.
Examples in marble in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York,
dated 1778 (72.6), the Philadelphia Museum of Art, dated 1779, and sold
Sotheby’s, 5 December 1996, lot 78, dated 1778. There are bronze versions, for
example, in the White House, Washington; the American Embassy, London, and in
the Bodleian Library, Oxford (Mrs R. L. Poole, Catalogue of Portraits in the
possession of the University, Colleges and City and County of Oxford, I, p
109).
A drawing by Houdon of Franklin was sold Sotheby’s, 23 March
1978, lot 179. A ‘death mask’, probably the life mask taken by Houdon in Paris
in 1785, was allegedly sold for 10 francs in 1828 (illus. Harper’s Mag., XXIV,
1892, p 910; C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pl.44).
The bust was also copied by John Flaxman c.1801, showing
four buttons on waistcoat; plaster cast with the American Philosophical
Society, Philadelphia (C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, 1962,
pl.21) - apparently the source for the marble busts by Hiram Powers, see
1848-49 below.
Painting by J-F. de L’Hospital, half-length oval. University
of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia (C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture,
1962, pl.22). Sellers recorded three copies.
c.1778
Painting attributed to C-P-A. Van Loo, half-length oval with
fur-collared coat. American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia (C. C. Sellers,
Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pl.23). Variant, without the fur
collar, engraved P. M. Alix c.1790 (C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in
Portraiture, 1962, pl.23); pastel copy by L. M. D. Guillaume with the Virginia
Historical Society, Richmond.
Painting by Anne Rosalie Filleul, half length showing right
hand, his glasses on a table. French private collection 1962 (C. C. Sellers,
Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pl.23). Engraved L-J. Cathelin,
exhibited Salon 1779 (263).
1779
Stone bust by P-F. Berruer, life size. Formerly with J. de
Saint Pierre (illus. Gazette des Beaux-Arts, XVIII, 1928, p 169). Apparently
derived from the bust by Dejoux, see 1777.
Drawing by C-J. Notté, exhibited Salon 1779: ‘portrait de M.
le docteur Franklin, dessiné au crayon, avec des allégories’.
c.1780-81
Drawing by L-C. de Carmontelle, whole-length seated. Private
collection, New York (C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, 1962,
pl.28). Engraved by F. D. Née 1781. A closely related drawing by Gaspard Duché
de Vancy was also engraved by Née.
1780
Painting by Stephen Elmer, half-length seated at table.
Private collection, New York (C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture,
1962, pl.13). Engraved T. Ryder 1782.
1782
Pastel by Joseph Ducreux, exhibited Salon 1782 (88).
Painting by Joseph Wright adapted from the Duplessis
portrait of 1778, the features altered from the life. Yale University (C. C.
Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, p.415, no.2; see M. H. Fabian,
Joseph Wright, American Artist, exhibition catalogue, NPG Washington, 1985, pp
84-89, nos.9-13). Engraved W. Angus 1783. Replicas in Boston Public Library;
Corcoran Art Gallery, Washington; Royal Society, London (presented by Caleb
Whitefoord 1791); versions in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia;
from the Northbrook collection, sold Sotheby’s, 31 January 1951, lot 98; a
miniature copy by J-T. Perrache sold Christie’s, 21 April 1998, lot 40 (cf. D.
Foskett, A Dictionary of British Miniature Painters, 1972, II, pl.268, no.662).
Used by Benjamin West for his unfinished Signing of the
Preliminary Treaty of Peace of 1782 in which Franklin appears with John Jay,
John Adams, Henry Laurens and his own grandson William T. Franklin (Winterthur
Museum; H. von Erffa & A. Staley, The Paintings of Benjamin West, 1986,
no.105).
c.1782
Miniature by J-B. Weyler, examples on ivory and in enamel in
the Musée du Louvre (33126 and 35727; C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in
Portraiture, 1962, pl.34, and front.). Replicas in the Gilbert collection
(illus. S. Coffin & B. Hofstetter, The Gilbert Collection, Portrait
Miniatures 2000, no.60), Sotheby’s, 10 November 1986, lot 197, and Christie’s,
Geneva, 15 May 1990, lot 251. Related enamel, signed D. C. 1785, formerly with
Wildenstein, NY (C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pl.34)
and sold Sotheby's, 16 May 1957, lot 37 inscribed après Mr Weyller.
1783-84
Medals: by J-F. Bernier 1783, commissioned by the Masonic
Lodge of the Neuf Soeurs, Paris, of which Franklin had been Venerable (C. C.
Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pp 193-94) and by Augustin
Dupré 1784 (C. Saunier, Augustin Dupré, 1894, p 21, pl.IV).
1783
Pencil drawing inscribed M. Perier ce 4 janvier 1783,
profile bust to right, wearing hat. Walters Art Gallery, Baltimore (C. C.
Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pl.13). A pastel copy, with
spectacles added, in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
America 1785-90
1785
Painting by C. W. Peale, bust-length oval, wearing
spectacles; unfinished (C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, 1962,
pl.37). Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia. Engraved C. W. Peale
1787 (C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pl.37). Unlocated
miniature copies by William Mercer and Rembrandt Peale. Enlarged replica
painted in 1789 with an elaborate quotation in view on table [‘In every stroke
of lightning. I am of opinion that the stream of electric fluid ...’];
Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.
1787
Wooden bust by William Rush. Yale University Art Gallery (C.
C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pl.38). Rush also carved
two ship’s figureheads of Franklin, one on the Franklin (C. C. Sellers,
Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pp 358-59). A derivative bronze in the
White House, Washington (illus. W. Kloss et al., Art in the White House, 1992,
p 359).
c.1787
Painting by R. E. Pine, bust length, wearing spectacles.
Franklin Institute, Philadelphia (C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture,
1962, pl.37; R. G. Stewart, Robert Edge Pine, A British Portrait Painter in
America 1784-88 1979, p 57).
Miniature by John Ramage. British Society for International
Understanding, London (C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pl.37).
c.1789
Silhouettes by Joseph Sansom (C. C. Sellers, Benjamin
Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pl.39) and A-A-C-F. Edouart (illus. E. F. Nevill
Jackson, Silhouette, Notes and Dictionary, 1938, pl.54).
Posthumous
1790-91
Marble statue by Francesco Lazzarini, the head from the
Caffiéri bust of 1777. Library Company, Philadelphia, taken down in 1879 and
replaced with a copy by Lewis Iselin jr. 1959 (C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin
in Portraiture, 1962, pp 203-04).
1791
Bust by J-A. Houdon, exhibited Salon 1791 (484, among ‘onze
morceaux de Sculpture Bustes tant en marbre qu’en terre cuite, Plâtre &
Bronze’). Provisionally associated with the plaster in the Boston Athenaeum (H.
H. Arnason, Houdon, 1975, fig.119, and see p 54); another example in the musée
des Beaux-Arts, Angers.
A marble version of this type, bearing the date 1780, is in
the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas MO (C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in
Portraiture, 1962, pl.21), closely resembling a marble by Domenico Menconi of
c.1862 (American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia; C. C. Sellers, Benjamin
Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pl.21).
1793
Terracotta statuette by F-M. Suzanne, standing by a broken
column. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin
in Portraiture, 1962, pl.29). Exhibited Salon 1793 (62). Copied in marble,
bronze and other metals.
Nineteenth-century images include the marble bust by Hiram
Powers 1848-49 (Yale University; illus. R. P. Wunder, Hiram Powers, 1991, II, p
151; C. C. Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture, 1962, pl.21), of which
there are many replicas; the statue by Powers of 1861-62 (US Capitol,
Washington DC; illus. R. P. Wunder, Hiram Powers, 1991, II, pp 150-1), and
another by John J. Boyle (University of Pennsylvania).
___________________________
Bust of John Locke
Carved Mahogany.
Probably from a library bookcase.
Bust of John Locke.
c. 1770.
Mahogany.
Height 10.5"
Attributed to Martin Jugiez.
Metropolitan Museum, New York.
Detail of above.
_______________________
