Benjamin Franklin Portrait - New York City, NY
Posted by: Metro2
N 40° 46.762 W 073° 57.762
18T E 587529 N 4514782
This 1778 portrait is located at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
Waymark Code: WMNB0H
Location: New York, United States
Date Posted: 02/03/2015
Views: 4
The Museum's website (
visit link) provides the information about this painting:
"Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)
Artist: Joseph Siffred Duplessis (French, Carpentras 1725–1802 Versailles)
Date: 1778
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: Oval, 28 1/2 x 23 in. (72.4 x 58.4 cm)
Classification: Paintings
Credit Line: The Friedsam Collection, Bequest of Michael Friedsam, 1931
Accession Number: 32.100.132...
When Franklin arrived in France in the autumn of 1776 to negotiate for aid and an alliance, he was already a celebrity. His simple dress and refusal to wear a wig made an impression in intellectual circles and elsewhere. Franklin lived at Passy in a house provided by Jacques Donatien Le Ray de Chaumont who commissioned a terra cotta medallion with his profile as well as this portrait, which was exhibited at the Salon of 1779. The original frame includes the attributes of Liberty, Peace, and Victory, and is accompanied by the simple Latin inscription VIR."