Benjamin Franklin

19th century

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    oil on canvas

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Adele Lewisohn Lehman

  • Dimensions

    overall: 72.7 x 57.5 cm (28 5/8 x 22 5/8 in.)
    framed: 93.4 x 80.7 x 7.9 cm (36 3/4 x 31 3/4 x 3 1/8 in.)

  • Accession

    1971.93.1

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

(M. Knoedler & Co., London, New York, and Paris); purchased 1928 by Mr. [1873-1936] and Mrs. [née Adele Lewisohn, 1882-1965] Arthur Lehman, New York;[1] gift 1961 to the White House, in care of the National Park Service, Washington, D.C.; transfer 1971 to NGA.
[1] According to the provenance provided by Knoedler's when the painting was acquired by the Lehmans (in NGA curatorial files), the Washington canvas was said to have been in the following collections: purchased from the artist by Elie de Beaumont, who died in Paris on 10 January 1786; purchased 1828 in Paris by a Mr. Graham, an officer in the Foot Guards; his son, John Charles William Paul Graham, London; bequeathed 1898 to Henry Anson Harton, Esq., Catton Hall, Burton-on-Trent. The 1936 exhibition catalogue adds the name of the American collector Thomas B. Clarke [1848-1931] of New York, and Claus Virch, The Adele and Arthur Lehman Collection, New York, 1965: 56-57, adds with a question mark J.C.W.P. Graham's sale at Christie's, London, 23 July 1898, where the painting, no. 39 ("J.B. Greuze, Portrait of Franklin, 27 1/2 in. x 22 in."), was withdrawn. Clarke's sale of early American portraits (American Art Association, New York, 7 January 1919) did not include the NGA painting.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1943

  • Thomas Jefferson Bicentennial Exhibition, 1743-1943, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1943, no. 20.

1971

  • Loan for display with permanent collection, National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., 1971-1980 (lent to Franklin Institute, Philadelphia, 1979-1980, during this loan).

1979

  • [Exchange for loan to National Portrait Gallery], Franklin Institute Science Museum and Planetarium, Philadelphia, 1979-1980.

1981

  • Extended loan for use by Secretary Caspar W. Weinberger, U.S. Department of Defense, Washington, D.C., 1981-1987.

1987

  • Extended loan for use by Secretary Frank Carlucci, U.S. Department of Defense, Washington, D.C., 1987-1989.

1989

  • Extended loan for use by Vice President and Mrs. Dan Quayle, Vice President's House, Washington, D.C., 1989-1993.

1994

  • Extended loan for use by Secretary Richard Riley, U.S. Department of Education, Washington, D.C., 1994-2001.

2018

  • Extended loan for use by Secretary Alex M. Azar II, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Washington, D.C., 2018-2021.

Bibliography

1962

  • Sellers, Charles Coleman. Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture. New Haven, 1962: 22, 299, repro.

1963

  • Sellers, Charles Coleman. "La noblesse d'une âme libre: The Franklin of Greuze and De Veri." Art Quarterly 26, no. 1 (Spring 1963): 4.

1965

  • Virch, Claus. The Adele and Arthur Lehman Collection. New York, 1965: 56-57, repro.

1975

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1975: 164, repro.

1985

  • European Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1985: 190, repro.

2009

  • Conisbee, Philip, et al. French Paintings of the Fifteenth through the Eighteenth Century. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 2009: no. 56, 256-258, color repro.

Wikidata ID

Q20180501

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