Elmer/Portrait of Benjamin Franklin
- Title
- Elmer/Portrait of Benjamin Franklin
- Collection
- Caltech Images Collection
- Series
- Fine Art Photographs
- Identifier
- FA-BF-0064
- Extents
- 1 photographs
- Abstract
- Franklin seated, holding the January 1776 issue of the London Evening Post in his right hand, and reading it with pince-nez (not his usual spectacles); under his left hand is a copy of Richard Price’s 1776 pamphlet, Observations on the Nature of Civil Liberty... [Note: Romanticized portrait; possibly done in the 19th century.] Seal in lower right-hand corner. Inspired by a 1780 oil painting by Stephen Elmer (d. 1796). [Note: Speculation as to whether the picture represents Franklin at all; identification as Franklin is only documented by 2 engravings made from this painting after Elmer’s death.]