Portrait of Benjamin Franklin
Medium
Pen and ink, and brush and brown and gray wash
Dimensions
6 11/16 x 4 9/16in. (17 x 11.6cm)
Classification
Drawings
Department
Drawings and Prints
Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY
Credit
Gift of János Scholz, 1949
Accession Number
49.13.1
Tags
Art Historical Context
This intimate *Portrait of Benjamin Franklin* by French artist Jean-Baptiste-François Bosio captures the likeness of one of America's most iconic Founding Fathers through delicate pen and ink lines enhanced by brush and brown and gray wash. Measuring just 6 11/16 x 4 9/16 inches, this small-scale drawing exemplifies the precision of 18th- or early 19th-century draftsmanship, where wash techniques add subtle shading and depth, evoking a sense of volume on a modest surface. Housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Drawings and Prints department, it was a generous gift from János Scholz in 1949...