FRANCKLIN [sic]

Descripción

Handcolored oval mezzotint portrait, 10 x 8 1/4 inches, on a 12 1/2 x 9 1/4-inch sheet. Sheet lightly browned, more so around the edges. Overall, very good. Matted. An attractive mezzotint portrait of Benjamin Franklin, with delicate contemporary coloring. The engraving was done after an original portrait by the famed French painter, Charles Philippe Vanloo (sometimes spelled Van Loo). The original portrait was done while Franklin resided in Paris in the years during and after the American Revolution, and is now in the collection of the American Philosophical Society, which was founded by Franklin. Sellers asserts that it is "beyond question a life portrait," done between 1777 and 1785. In Vanloo's original portrait Franklin wears a fur coat. In this print of the painting the fur coat has been replaced by a simpler cloth coat. Franklin wears glasses, his hair is long and gray, and he has a slight smile on his face. In the caption below the image, his name is spelled "Francklin." "The substitution of a simple gray coat for the fur-trimmed costume of the original was undoubtedly in deference to revolutionary feeling" - Sellers. This print was engraved after Vanloo's portrait by the noted French engraver, Pierre-Michel Alix, who was known for his portraits of leading French citizens and prominent personalities. A handsome contemporary portrait of the American who dazzled France as a diplomat, scientist, philosopher, and gentleman of society. SELLERS, BENJAMIN FRANKLIN IN PORTRAITURE, p.394. N° de ref. del artículo WRCAM45754

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