CAFFIERI, Jean-Jacques

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790)

marble

bust

Dimensions (HxWxD): H. 25 in.

Acc. No.: MSA SC 4680-20-0029

Credit Line: Collection of the Maryland State Archives

Photo credit: Collection of the Maryland Commission on Artistic Property of the Maryland State Archives

© Artist : public domain

Annapolis, Maryland, Maryland State Archives

www.msa.md.gov/msa/speccol/sc4600/sc4680/html/intro_peabody.html

Provenance

• formerly in the Peabody Institute Art Collection, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore
• 1996, Peabody Art Collection acquired by the State of Maryland and adminstrated by the Maryland Commission on Artistic Property, Maryland State Archives

Bibliography

• Peabody Art Collection website, June 13, 2013
• 2016 Ehrlich
  Pamela Ehrlich, "The Royal Academy of Sciences' Bust of Benjamin Franklin", Antiques & Fine Art, Summer 2016, p. 144-151

Related works

• Painted terracotta, H. 27 (without base), exhibited at the Paris 1777 Salon, Paris, Bibliothèque Mazarine; inscribed at back: BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, NE A BOSTON EN AMERIQUE LE XVII JANVIER 1706, FAIT PAR J.J. CAFFIERI, EN 1777.
  Other plasters:
  - Brunswick, Maine, Bowdoin College Museum of Art, plaster painted as bronze, H. 29 7/8, acc. no. 1835.1, Gift of Benjamin Vaughan (1751-1835, friend of Benjamin Franklin) in 1835
  - London, Royal Academy, inscribed and signed
  - New York, NY, Metropolitan Museum of Art, plaster painted green, H. 13 1/2, acc. no. 83.2.190, Gift of William H. Huntington in 1883 (same model?)
  - New York, NY, New-York Historical Society, Gift of Dr. David Hosack (1769-1835) in 1835
  - Warsaw, Poland, Royal Castle Museum, inscribed and signed, acc. no. ZKW/3430, purchased by King Stanislaus from Caffieri in 1784
  - Washington, D.C., George Washington University, plaster painted bronze/gold, inscribed and signed, H. 28, Gift from Caffieri to the Royal Academy of Sciences in 1788, then gift from the Academy of Sciences through the Merci Train in 1949.
  Marble copies, some of them being possibly carved by Giuseppe Ceracchi (1751-1801), Italian sculptor who lived in Philadelphia 1790-1794:
  - Easton, PA, Lafayette College, H. 21, acc. no. S159
  - Hartford, CN, Wadsworth Athenaeum, H. 19 1/2, acc. no. 1939.460, Gift from estate of Mrs. James J. Goodwin in 1949
  - Philadelphie, PA, Historical Society of Pennsylvania, formerly at Atwater Kent Museum of Philadelphia, H. 20 (without base)
  - Philadelphia, PA, Pennsylvania Hospital
  - Philadelphia, PA, Second Bank of the United States
  - Philadelphia, PA, The Franklin Institute, bust cut at shoulders
  - San Marino, CA, The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens, H. 20 1/2, acc. no. 24.4, Acquired by Henry E. Huntington in 1924.
  Other type (coat with big buttons), copies in Sèvres porcelain:
  - Cambridge, MA, Harvard Art Museums, H. 9 1/16, acc. no. 1943.1163, Bequest of Grenville L. Winthrop in 1943
  - San Francisco, CA, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, Legion of Honor, H. 9 1/2, acc. no. 1925.477, Gift of the French Government for the opening of the Museum in 1925.