Bowdoin College Museum of Art |

Preview image of work. plaster and dark brown paint, Benjamin Franklin 218

1835.1

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Benjamin Franklin

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Artists

Jean-Jacques Caffieri (1725 - 1792); [formerly attributed to Jean-Antoine Houdon]

Title

Benjamin Franklin

Creation Date

ca. 1785

Century

18th century

Dimensions

29 7/8 in. x 19 3/4 in. x 12 1/8 in. (75.88 cm x 50.17 cm x 30.8 cm)

Classification

Sculpture

Creation Place

Europe, France

Medium and Support

plaster and dark brown paint

Credit Line

Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, Maine, Gift of William Vaughan

Copyright

Public Domain

Accession Number

1835.1

Benjamin Franklin was a leading proponent of the Enlightenment in America. A founding father known for his experimentation—most famously with electricity—and publications, such as Poor Richard’s Almanack, Franklin helped to establish in 1743 the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia, a scholarly organization that promotes science and the humanities. Other Society notables included members of the Vaughan family of Hallowell, Maine, who donated this sculpture to Bowdoin College in 1835. Espousing reason and inquiry over superstition and faith, Enlightenment ideals also inspired Rufus Porter’s quest to promote useful knowledge, a term denoting an understanding of the natural world, how things worked, and how mechanical operations might be improved.

Additional Media

angled view

side view