Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790) | Joseph Siffred Duplessis | All | European Paintings | Collection Database | Works of Art

Signatures, Inscriptions, and Markings

Signed, dated, and inscribed (right center): J.S. Duplessis / pinx.parisis / 1778

Gallery LabelWhen 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 a great impression in intellectual circles. Franklin was housed in a property belonging to Jacques Donatien Le Ray de Chaumont, who commissioned a terra cotta medallion with a profile portrait of Franklin and this painted portrait, which was exhibited in the Salon of 1779. The original frame includes the attributes of Liberty, Peace, and Victory and is accompanied by the simple Latin inscription VIR: a true man.

NotesDuring Franklin's diplomatic mission to France, lasting from 1777 until 1785, portraits of him were in great demand. This portrait is the "icon" on which numerous other replicas—known as fur collar portraits—are based. Painted for Donatien le Ray de Chaumont, Franklin's landlord, and exhibited at the Salon of 1779, it is the only signed and dated version and the original frame bears the Latin inscription "VIR" (or "a true man") that is mentioned in two Salon commentaries (see Refs. Bachaumont and Du Pont de Nemours 1779). The numerous surviving painted replicas of this portrait are generally attributed to Duplessis's workshop, although an example in the New York Historical Society may be the work of Duplessis's contemporary, Alexandre Roslin. Duplessis included a painted portrait of Franklin at the Paris Salon of 1801, but its present location is unknown. Duplessis' pastel in the New York Public Library shows Franklin in a pale blue waistcoat and jacket, without a fur collar. A copy of it in miniature was made in August 1779 (see Ref. Sellers 1962).

An engraving after our picture by Juste Chevillet bears the same inscription as the painting: "Duplessis Pinxit Parisiis [sic] 1778," and mentions that the original belonged to Chaumont. Our painting was also engraved in color in 1789 by Jean François Janinet. An engraving by Ambroise Tardieu inscribed "Dessiné d'après le portrait peint par Duplessis à Paris en 1778 . . .", includes less of Franklin's trunk and omits his waistcoat, but is otherwise quite close to our portrait. It is therefore difficult to determine whether the engraver has simplified his task by omitting some details or if the engraving is based on a variant of our portrait produced by Duplessis in the same year (as Sterling 1955 asserts)—one that does not appear to have survived. It should be noted that Pierre Alexandre Tardieu's engraving after the blue-coat pastel also abbreviates Franklin's trunk and replaces the buttons on the original with button holes.

A replica of our portrait from Duplessis's workshop is in the MMA (acc. no. 95.21).

ProvenanceDonatien Le Ray de Chaumont, Paris (until 1791?); Jacques Constantin Périer, Paris; or his brother, Auguste Charles Périer, Paris; Scipion Périer, Paris (until d. 1821); the Périer family, Paris (until 1919; sold to Friedsam); Michael Friedsam, New York (1919–d. 1931)

Exhibition History

Paris. Salon. 1779, no. 128.

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.

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.

References

Ah! Ah! Encore une critique du Sallon!. Paris, 1779, p. 20.

P. S. du Pont de Nemours. 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].

Friedrich Grimm. Correspondance littéraire (October 1779), p. 327 [reprinted in "Coresspondance littéraire, philosophique et critique . . . ," ed. Maurice Tourneux, vol. 12, 1880, p. 327].

[l'abbé Grosier]. Coup-d'oeil sur les ouvrages de peinture, sculpture et gravure de messieurs de l'académie royale. Geneva, 1779, p. 35.

Le miracle de nos jours; conversation écrite et recueillie par un sourd et muet; et la bonne lunette. 1779, p. 42.

[L. J. H. Lefebure]. Janot, au Salon; ou Le proverbe. Paris, 1779, p. 28.

[Lesuire]. Le mort vivant au Salon de 1779. Paris, 1779, p. 19.

"Lettre d'un Italien sur l'exposition de 1779." 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].

Mouffle d'Angerville. 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].

Elkanah Watson. 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].

Benjamin Franklin. Letter to Pierre Simon Fournier. Spring 1780 [excerpt published in Ref. Oswald 1926, p. 10].

Jules Belleudy. J.-S. Duplessis, peintre du roi, 1725–1802. Chartres, 1913, pp. 1, 49, 85–87, 144, 304–5, 321–22, no. 57.

"Col. Friedsam Buys Portrait of Franklin." New York Times (September 16, 1919), p. 31.

John Clyde Oswald. Benjamin Franklin in Oil and Bronze. New York, 1926, pp. 10, 12, ill. opp. title page.

Louis Réau. L'art français aux États-Unis. Paris, 1926, pp. 67–68.

"Friedsam Bequest to be Exhibited Next November." Art News 30 (January 2, 1932), p. 13.

Bryson Burroughs and Harry B. Wehle. "The Michael Friedsam Collection: Paintings." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 27, section 2 (November 1932), pp. 50–52, no. 87, ill.

Josephine L. Allen. Eminent Americans. New York, 1939, unpaginated, fig. 2.

Michel N. Benisovich. "Duplessis in the United States, Addenda: 'Benjamin Franklin' at the White House, a Letter and a Drawing." Gazette des beaux-arts, 6th ser., 29 (May 1946), pp. 285–88, fig. 4.

Charles Sterling. "XV–XVIII Centuries." The Metropolitan Museum of Art: A Catalogue of French Paintings. 1, Cambridge, Mass., 1955, pp. 171–73, ill.

Albert Ten Eyck Gardner. "Huntington's Franklins." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 15 (Summer 1956), pp. 16–17, ill. on cover (color).

Charles Coleman Sellers. 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).

Charles Coleman Sellers. Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture. New Haven, 1962, pp. 124–37, 179, 246–64, 282, 317–18, 370, pl. 24.

Nicholas B. Wainwright. "'Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture.' By Charles Coleman Sellers, 1962." Mississippi Valley Historical Review 50 (June 1963), p. 116.

Claude-Anne Lopez. Mon Cher Papa: Franklin and the Ladies of Paris. New Haven, 1966, pp. 127, 140, 209, 233.

Louise Todd Ambler. Benjamin Franklin: A Perspective. Exh. cat., Fogg Art Museum, Cambridge, Mass. New York, 1975, pp. 82–83.

Pierre Rosenberg in French Painting, 1774–1830: The Age of Revolution. Exh. cat., Detroit Institute of Arts. Detroit, 1975, p. 405.

Meredith Martindale. "Benjamin Franklin's Residence in France: The Hôtel de Valentinois in Passy." Antiques 112 (August 1977), p. 273, ill. (Janinet engraving).

Michael Warner. "Franklin and the Letters of the Republic." Representations (Autumn 1986), p. 126.

Michael Warner. The Letters of the Republic: Publication and the Public Sphere in Eighteenth-Century America. Cambridge, Mass., 1990, p. 96.

Keith Arbour. "One Last Word: Benjamin Franklin and the Duplessis Portrait of 1778." Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography 118 (July 1994), pp. 183–208, fig. 1.

Thierry Bajou in The Dictionary of Art. 9, New York, 1996, p. 400.

F. Marandet in Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon: die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker. 31, Munich, 2002, p. 57.

Jean-Paul Chabaud. 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.

Kimberly Chrisman-Campbell in French Art of the Eighteenth Century at The Huntington. [San Marino, Calif.], 2008, pp. 382–83, fig. 146.

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