Exhibition History Paris. Salon. 1779, no. 128 (lent by M. de Chaumont).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Michael Friedsam Collection," November 15, 1932–April 9, 1933, no catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Benjamin Franklin and His Circle," May 11–September 13, 1936, no. 5.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Life in America," April 24–October 29, 1939, no. 33.
Hamburger Kunsthalle. "Europa 1789: Aufklärung, Verklärung, Verfall," September 15–November 19, 1989, no. 52.
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "Portraits of Franklin," February 15–April 27, 1997, no catalogue.
Philadelphia. National Constitution Center. "Benjamin Franklin: In Search of A Better World," December 15, 2005–April 30, 2006, unnumbered cat. (ill. p. 236).
Philadelphia Museum of Art. "In Pursuit of Genius: Jean-Antoine Houdon and the Sculpted Portraits of Benjamin Franklin," May 13–July 31, 2006, unnumbered cat. (fig. 13).
References Ah! Ah! Encore une critique du Sallon! . Paris, 1779, p. 20, considers it a speaking likeness but a bit grey.Letter to Margrave Caroline-Louise de Baden . 1779 [Salon review in the form of a letter, published in "Lettres sur les Salons," Archives de l'art français, nouvelle période, vol. 2, 1908; see pp. 105–7 for discussion of this portrait], praises this portrait, and compares it with Alexander Roslin's portrait of Linnaeus, also exhibited at the Salon; reads Franklin's character in his "handsome" features and expression, noting that his appearance and life correspond to the "laconic inscription at the bottom of the portrait, 'Vir'".Correspondance littéraire (October 1779), p. 327 [reprinted in "Coresspondance littéraire, philosophique et critique . . . ," ed. Maurice Tourneux, vol. 12, 1880, p. 327], observes that this portrait would be Duplessis's masterpiece if the position of the sitter were better indicated; adds that it is not clear whether he is standing or seated, he appears to be falling.Coup-d'oeil sur les ouvrages de peinture, sculpture et gravure de messieurs de l'académie royale . Geneva, 1779, p. 35, calls it an accurate likeness of Franklin.Le miracle de nos jours; conversation écrite et recueillie par un sourd et muet; et la bonne lunette . 1779, p. 42, observes that although this portrait is a good likeness, Duplessis has given Franklin a very common appearance; as a result this famous foreigner can scarcely be recognized.Janot, au Salon; ou Le proverbe . Paris, 1779, p. 28, as one of the works seen with the greatest interest, and which brings the greatest honor on Duplessis; remarks that although we must assume the sitter is seated, it might have been helpful to indicate a seat of some kind, so that the subject would not have the appearance of falling.Le mort vivant au Salon de 1779 . Paris, 1779, p. 19.Mercure de France (September 1779) [mentioned on p. 133 according to Ref. Sterling 1955; article transcribed in Collection Deloynes, no. 230, this picture mentioned on p. 769], praises the portrait of Franklin.Letter . London, September 25, 1779 [first published in "Mémoires secrets pour servir à l'histoire de la république des lettres en France . . .," London, 1777–89; reprinted in "Les Salons de Bachaumont," ed. F. Faré, 1995, p. 89], states that the portrait of Mr. Franklin corresponds to its brief device: "VIR" [the man].Journal entry . September 15, 1779 [New York State Library, MS journal of Elkanah Watson, 3 43 55, excerpts published in Ref. Sellers 1962, pp. 125–26], reports that when he crowded into the galleries of the Louvre on September 14 and 15 he found there "that masterpiece of painting representing our Illustrious Patron Doctr. Franklin, who is deposited (as a mark of particular respect) upon the left of his present Majesty"; elsewhere, however, he describes the portrait as hanging to the left of the those of the King and Queen [according to Ref. Sellers 1962 its neighbors were most likely the King's brother and the duchesse de Chartres.Letter to Pierre Simon Fournier . Spring 1780 [excerpt published in Ref. Oswald 1926, p. 10], notes that Duplessis "made a good portrait of me in large size for M. de Chaumont" and recommends it as a model to be copied, in this way saving Franklin the time and trouble of sitting for yet another portrait.J.-S. Duplessis, peintre du roi, 1725–1802 . Chartres, 1913, pp. 1, 49, 85–87, 144, 304–5, 321–22, no. 57, ascribes to Duplessis at least seven replicas of the Franklin portrait he exhibited in the 1779 Salon; notes that the original, which he erroneously identifies with the example in the Boston Atheneum, was made for Le Ray de Chaumont and engraved by Chevillet; mentions another portrait of Franklin by Duplessis, a pastel in which he is shown with a pale blue waistcoat and jacket and without the fur collar (New York Public Library); reports some 1779 Salon commentary, and mistakenly includes remarks that refer to Franklin as wearing a coat of white satin [probably due to the fact that Ref. Ah! Ah! 1779 mentions immediately after discussion of the Franklin portrait "Ce portrait en veste de satin blanc . . ." which, in the context, must refer to another painting].New York Times (September 16, 1919), p. 31, report the purchase of this portrait by Friedsam and state, probably erroneously, that Franklin presented this portrait to the Périer brothers when he had concluded his ambassadorship in Paris.Benjamin Franklin in Oil and Bronze . New York, 1926, pp. 10, 12, ill. opp. title page, observes that the Duplessis portraits of Franklin are known as "fur collar" portraits, and that the sculptor Richard S. Greenough (who made the Franklin statue in front of City Hall, Boston) is quoted as saying that "Franklin's fondness for fur in his pictures is due to the fact that fur was used as a professional badge by the early printers"; quotes Franklin's letter to Fournier [see Ref. Franklin 1780].L'art français aux États-Unis . Paris, 1926, pp. 67–68, compares "the puffy, clean-shaven visage of Franklin emerging from a fur collar" in this picture to the portrait of Franklin that Greuze showed in his studio in 1777 [now in the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia]; identifies the picture commissioned by Le Ray de Chaumont and shown at the 1779 Salon as the example in the Friedsam Collection, noting that it has the same inscription (Vir) on its frame that Dupont de Nemours [Ref. 1779] mentions in his letter; states that the Friedsam portrait was owned by the Périer brothers, who acquired it directly from Franklin.Art News 30 (January 2, 1932), p. 13.Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 27, section 2 (November 1932), pp. 50–52, no. 87, ill., believe this is the portrait of Franklin shown at the Salon of 1779, as it is superior in quality to the other versions, it is the only signed and dated example, and bears the word "VIR" [reported in Refs. Bachaumont and Dupont de Nemours 1779] on its (regilded) period frame; state that Colonel Friedsam bought the picture from a member of the Périer family; mention the tradition that M. de Chaumont was forced to sell his effects in 1791 and suppose that our picture may have been bought by the Périers at that time; state that there are nine known replicas.Eminent Americans . New York, 1939, unpaginated, fig. 2.Gazette des beaux-arts , 6th ser., 29 (May 1946), pp. 285–88, fig. 4, erroneously claims that Duplessis regularly exhibited replicas of Chaumont's Franklin, shown in 1779, through the Salon of 1801; incorrectly identifies Chaumont's original with the replica now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; publishes the portrait of Franklin given in 1945 by General de Gaulle to President Truman as a quick sketch by Duplessis.The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of French Paintings . 1, Cambridge, Mass., 1955, pp. 171–73, ill., asserts that Duplessis painted a second portrait of Franklin in 1778, known through an engraving by Ambroise Tardieu [see Notes] and claims that a third version by Duplessis, in which Franklin appears without the fur collar, was exhibited at the Salon of 1801 and engraved by Pierre Alexandre Tardieu [the picture shown in 1801, no. 124, "Le portrait peint de Francklin" appears to have been a fur-collar portrait, see Ref. Sellers 1962; the Tardieu engraving follows the composition of the pastel in the New York Public Library].Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 15 (Summer 1956), pp. 16–17, ill. on cover (color).Exhibition of Portraits Marking the 250th Anniversary of the Birth of the Society's Founder, Benjamin Franklin . Exh. cat., American Philosophical Society. [Philadelphia], [1956], pp. 17–18.The Papers of Benjamin Franklin . 1, New Haven, 1959, p. xix, ill. (color, frontispiece).Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture . New Haven, 1962, pp. 124–37, 179, 246–64, 282, 317–18, 370, pl. 24, catalogues our picture and at least nineteen replicas, providing their provenance in great detail; sees the "Grey Coat" pastel in the New York Public Library as either the "original study" for our picture or a contemporary copy by the artist, dating it 1778 [see Notes]; based on the engraving of the 1801 Salon believes the Franklin portrait shown there by Duplessis was a fur collar portrait in an oblong frame, matted or painted as an oval, and tentatively suggests it is the example in the collection of the Earl of Ilchester, London [present whereabouts unknown]; quotes from the journal of Elkanah Watson [see Ref. Watson 1779], an American visitor to the Salon of 1779, and also from Franklin's letter to Fournier [Ref. 1780]; lists the symbols on the frame as a rattelsnake, liberty cap, club of Hercules, lion skin (for Britain), a branch of olive (for peace), a wreath of bay laurel (for victory), and a wreath of oak.Mississippi Valley Historical Review 50 (June 1963), p. 116.Mon Cher Papa: Franklin and the Ladies of Paris . New Haven, 1966, pp. 127, 140, 209, 233.Benjamin Franklin: A Perspective . Exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass. New York, 1975, pp. 82–83.in French Painting, 1774–1830: The Age of Revolution . Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1975, p. 405.Antiques 112 (August 1977), p. 273, ill. (Janinet engraving).Representations (Autumn 1986), p. 126, sees the inscription "VIR" or "virtuous citizen of the republic" as a pun on "fur" or "thief of letters"; describes Franklin's 1774 confrontation with Alexander Wedderburn, known as the "Cockpit" confrontation, in which Wedderburn attacked Franklin (then in England) before the Privy Council for sending secretly acquired inflamatory letters of Thomas Hutchinson, Governor of Massachusetts, back to influential men in the Colonies; quotes part of Wedderburn's attack: "Men will watch him with a jealous eye; they will hide their papers from him, and lock up their escrutoires. He will henceforth esteem it a libel to be called a "man of letters; homo 'trium' literarum" (in Latin, "man of three letters," an allusion to "fur," the Latin word for thief; the joke is taken from Plaudus, Aulularia).The Letters of the Republic: Publication and the Public Sphere in Eighteenth-Century America . Cambridge, Mass., 1990, p. 96.Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 118 (July 1994), pp. 183–208, fig. 1, suggests that "Franklin worked with Duplessis to insure that the portrait would convey the final word in the Franklin-Wedderburn exchange" [see Refs. Warner 1986 and 1990]; believes the pastel study of Franklin in a simple grey jacket (New York Public Library) precedes our painting and that the alteration of dress to include an "ample fur collar" was purposeful and made at Franklin's request; observes that the emphatic 'VIR' on our frame has proved to be the most durable word of the controversy and that Franklin's response to Wedderburn four years later through this triple pun "by its very silence avoided reviving Wedderburn's insulting words while quietly appropriating and transforming them to Franklin's permanent advantage".in The Dictionary of Art . 9, New York, 1996, p. 400, mentions numerous versions of Duplessis's portrait of Franklin, in the MMA and elsewhere.in Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker . 31, Munich, 2002, p. 57, cites numerous versions of the Duplessis portrait of Franklin, in the MMA and elsewhere.Joseph-Siffred Duplessis, 1725–1802: Biographie . Mazan, 2003, pp. 41, 112, 123–24, ill. p. XVI (color).Importants tableaux anciens . Piasa, Paris. December 13, 2006, p. 30.in French Art of the Eighteenth Century at The Huntington . [San Marino, Calif.], 2008, pp. 382–83, fig. 146, catalogues an oval pastel which she attributes to Jean Valade, probably from the 1780s, and identifies our painting as the prototype for it.
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