Benjamin Franklin (1706–1790)
Artist
Joseph-Siffred Duplessis
French, 1725–1802
Datecirca 1779
MediumOil on canvas
Dimensions27 1/2 x 21 1/2 in. (69.8 x 54.6 cm)
Frame: 35 3/4 x 29 1/2 in. (90.8 x 74.9 cm)
Frame: 35 3/4 x 29 1/2 in. (90.8 x 74.9 cm)
ClassificationsPaintings
Credit LineGift of the North Carolina Citizens Association
Object numberG.75.26.1
On View
Not on viewHis most popular portrait was made by Joseph-Siffred Duplessis, official painter to French King Louis XVI. The portrait was so admired that the artist received numerous commissions for replicas, of which this is one. The artist represents Franklin as his French admirers saw him, wise and resolute, and wholly unaffected by fashion: no powdered wig or embroidered waistcoat.
The same year this portrait was painted, Franklin wrote to his sister that, “few Strangers in France have had the good Fortune to be so universally popular,” and noted, “this Popularity has occasioned so many Paintings … to be made of me, and distributed throughout the Kingdom, that my Face is now almost as well known as that of the Moon.”
This painting was donated to the NCMA in December 1975 in honor of the country’s upcoming bicentennial celebration in 1976.
[M. Frederick, "The People's Collection, Reimagined," 2026]
ProvenanceCommissioned from the artist as a replica of the original [1]; created Paris or Versailles, circa 1779. Possibly Agesilas Joseph de Grossoles (1732-1818) and his wife, Elisabeth- Olympe-Louise-Armande-Félicité du Vigier (1752–1835), the Marquis and Marquise de Flamarens; to their daughter Charlotte Genet Saunier (d. 1843), Chateau de Villiers-les-Maillets, Saint-Barthélemy [2] and her husband, Isaac Cox Barnet (1773–1833), New Jersey and Paris [3]; to their daughter Elisabeth-Caroline Barnet, Comtess de Mastin (1801–1865) and her husband, Philippe-Auguste-Armand-Maurice de Mastin, Comte de Mastin (1780–1868); to their daughter, Alix Armande de Mastin (1825–1891), Chateau de Villiers-les-Maillets, Saint-Barthélemy; to her cousin, Étienne de Bessot, Comte de Lamothe (1868–1939); to his son Gilbert Bessot de Lamothe (1905–1984), Vaucluse, France [4]; [Guy Loudmer, Paris]; [Hirschl and Adler Galleries, New York, 1973]; purchased by the North Carolina Citizens Association for NCMA, 1975.
[1] Based on the prime version, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (32.100.132).
[2] Name given in Charles Coleman Sellers (“The Barnet Franklin,” Antiques 69–70 [1956], 354) as “Mlle. Saulnier de Marine”. Charlotte Genet Saunier is the name given in her probate inventory (Archives nationales de France, MC/RE/CVII/17).
[3] Barnet was the American Consul at Paris, who acquired the painting either by purchase or through his marriage to the daughter of the Marquise de Flamarens. Barnet’s previous ownership is first recorded in the Boston Daily Advertiser (“The Franklin Portraits,” October 1, 1858).
[4] Lender to the 1956 exhibition at the American Philosophical Society in New York.
Published References“The Franklin Portraits,” Boston Daily Advertiser (October 1, 1858).
Jules Belleudy, Peintre du Roi (Chartes: De L'Imprimerie Durand, 1913), 86-87, illus. 80.
Charles Coleman Sellers, “Catalogue of the Society’s Exhibition of Portraits of Benjamin Franklin: January 17–April 20, 1956,” Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 100, no. 4 (August 31, 1956), cat. no. 19, illus. (b/w), 377.
Charles Coleman Sellers, “The Barnet Franklin,” Antiques 69–70 (1956), 354 (illus.).
Charles Coleman Sellers, Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1962), 251, no. 5.
Retrospective of a gallery: twenty years (exhibition catalogue) (New York: Hirschl & Adler, 1973), no. 36.
North Carolina 34, no. 3 (March 1976), 18-19, 21-22.
Edgar Peters Bowron, ed., Introduction to the Collections (Chapel Hill: published for the North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh, by The University of North Carolina Press, 1983), illus. (b-w) 152.
Introduction to the Collections, rev. ed. (Raleigh: North Carolina Museum of Art, 1992), illus. (b-w) 134.
Anna Upchurch, "Private Support for a Public Collection," North Carolina Museum of Art Preview (Spring 1993), illus. (b-w) 15.
Arthur S. Marks, "A Franklin Portrait by William Dunlap," Southeastern College Art Conference Preview 13, no. 2 (1997), illus. (b-w) 149
Katharine Baetjer, et al, “Benjamin Franklin, Ambassador to France: Portraits by Joseph Siffred Duplessis,” in Metropolitan Museum Journal 52 (2017), mentioned 65, illus. (color) 66, fig. 11.
“A signed frame by Jean Chérin,” The Frame Blog, posted at:
https://www.theframeblog.com/2017/03/27/a-signed-frame-by-jean-cherin/
illus. (color).
Exhibition HistoryPhiladelphia, PA, American Philosophical Society, "Exhibition of Portraits Marking the 250th Anniversary of the Society's Founders," 1956, illus. 18.
New York, NY, Hirschl and Adler Galleries, "Retrospective of a Gallery, Twenty Years," 1973, illus. no. 36.
Raleigh, NC, North Carolina Museum of Art, "Recent Acquisitions," September 25-October 23, 1977.
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