Artist: Joseph Siffred Duplessis
Date: 1785
Size: 59 x 72 cm
Museum: National Portrait Gallery (Washington, United States)
Technique: Oil On Canvas
During his time, Benjamin Franklin was the most famous American in the world. He remains highly visible today as the face on the $100 bill; this portrait was selected as the basis for that engraving in 1995. Franklin represented colonial interests in England from 1757 to 1775. Upon his return, he was unani-mously elected to represent Pennsylvania at the Second Continental Congress. Behind him was a lifetime of achievement as a printer, an unsur-passed author of wit and wisdom, an inventor, and a scientist. Ahead were his roles as a signer of the Declaration of Independence and a member of the Constitutional Convention. In between was his tri-umph as a diplomat in France (1776–85), where this portrait was commissioned by Madame Brillon de Jouy. In a letter, she praised Franklin for his sound moral teaching and lively imagination but found his “droll roguishness” most endearing.
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