Description
This print reproduces Joseph Siffred Duplessis’s oil portrait of Benjamin Franklin in a gray coat, painted in Paris during Franklin’s mission to France. Duplessis, a French portraitist, first recorded Franklin in 1778 in the famous fur-collar picture. He later painted this plainer gray-coat type.
The National Portrait Gallery holds a gray-coat canvas (NPG.87.43). Museum dates for the type include 1778 and 1785. The shop file uses 1785. The fur-collar version, not this gray coat, is the model for the current hundred-dollar bill. Franklin wears a simple coat and ruffled shirt, the philosopher at the French court rather than a man in fur.
This listing is a contemporary print after the painting, not the original oil. Choose fine art paper, luster photo paper, or mounted canvas.