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Lot Essay
This recently cleaned and conserved depiction of a young and virile Benjamin Franklin, by one of Europe’s most celebrated sculptors, is the earliest and most naturalistic and vibrantly alive rendering known of Franklin. Very surprisingly, there exist precious few images of this American icon, especially major commissions such as this which was almost certainly rendered live in Rysbrack’s studio. This sculpture pre-dates -- by nearly 20 years -- Houdon’s later portrayals of an aged Franklin, which are in the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art, showing a new view of a Franklin who is relaxed yet resolute, leaning slightly forward in the prime of his life prior to the zenith of his many achievements. This rendering evokes a sense of movement that invites the viewer to engage in the heroic presence of a man who would come to be known as The First American. While this magnificent bust shocked not only the art world but created international headlines when it was re-discovered in London in 1986, new documentation uncovered since then contributes significantly to the object’s provenance and importance, including the role of this sculpture in Benjamin West’s unfinished but hugely important painting, the American Commissioners of the Preliminary Peace Negotiations with Great Britain, thus presenting new dimensions of a Franklin the world has never seen before.
As is well-known, Franklin was absolutely pivotal to America’s quest for independence and, as Keno notes, Franklin was the only American to have signed all four documents that created the United States: The Declaration of Independence (1776); The Treaty of Alliance, Amity, and Commerce with France (1778); The Treaty of Peace between England, France, and the United States (1782) and the Constitution (1787) (Keno, 2019, p. 9). And yet this personal study by Rysbrack is perhaps less about Franklin’s extraordinary accomplishments on the world stage. And it is this intimacy that sets Rysbrack’s bust apart from the other busts of Franklin. For while Franklin was a politician, a diplomat, a printer, a scientist, an educator, a philosopher, an engineer, a musical composer, an inventor – his extraordinary career and lists of interests and accomplishments could continue – but it was his humor and his humanity that many contemporaries considered his greatest attributes.
So, in addition to Franklin’s dazzling new physical appearance, this new documentation on the bust, as Eustace and Keno note, is a cache of letters dating from 1782-84 and now in the collections of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, that link this bust to the above-mentioned painting of the American Commissioners of the Preliminary Peace Negotiations with Great Britain, now in the Winterthur collections. Furthermore, it also provides an 18th century provenance for the present bust as it can now be documented in West’s studio as early as April of 1782 and was still documented there in March of 1784 (Eustace and Keno, 2015, p. 3). Benjamin West, an American artist, also originally from Pennsylvania, moved to England where he eventually became the official history painter to King George III and was a Founder Member of the Royal Academy and, from 1792, its second President. It is incredibly exciting that Rysbrack’s bust of Franklin can now be documented to have been in West’s studio in the early 1780s and, even though West knew his fellow Pennsylvanian Franklin very well, this bust would have served as a model or aide-memoire while he was working on the painting. For health reasons, Franklin could not come from Paris to London for sittings in West’s studio – so Rysbrack’s bust represented Franklin himself instead.
As Eustace and Keno also note, this bust can only have been executed during Franklin’s second visit to London between 1757 and 1762, as by the time of Franklin’s third visit to London in 1764, Rysbrack was long-retired, had sold most of the contents of his studio and was in poor health (Ibid., p. 5). It has been widely accepted that this bust is the first bust of the ‘First American’. For the entirety of the 19th and almost all of the 20th century, we have associated the sculpted image of Franklin with the busts by the French sculptor Jean-François Houdon (1741-1828). These magnificent busts (the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s version is dated 1778 and the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s is dated a year later), depict Franklin during his time in Paris. Franklin was in the French capital for nine years, from 1776-1785. During this time, he was working ferociously for the American cause. Of course, Franklin’s efforts in Paris were triumphantly successful and culminated in the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 which marked the end of the Revolutionary War and Independence for the new United States. However, as Houdon’s busts clearly show, these efforts had clearly taken a toll. In Houdon’s busts, Franklin, with his heavy-lidded sideways gaze, fleshy face with the folds of his chin almost indistinguishable from that of his lace cravat, show a distinguished elder statesman, both world-wise and certainly weary. But in Rysbrack’s bust from the late 1750s or early 1760s, the artist has not just depicted a man more than twenty years younger. Rysbrack’s Franklin is remarkably, and intensely, alert and his direct gaze which, along with his informal, open-necked, unbuttoned and loose clothing, seems to radiate the curiosity, vitality, warmth, informality and the generosity of spirit Franklin was so celebrated for. And, not incidentally, qualities that at the time were associated with the optimism of this new American Experiment and some of its more international citizens. It is also essential to note, that Rysbrack’s bust was almost certainly sculpted with Benjamin Franklin sitting in front of the artist in his studio, for multiple sittings, while Houdon probably observed Franklin at some remove (Ibid., p. 53 and J. Hinton, Et al., p. 33).
It was fitting that Rysbrack was commissioned for Franklin’s portrait bust. Rysbrack was one of the most accomplished and celebrated sculptors working in England in the first half of the 18th century. The list of his commissions and sitters could not be more impressive and included royalty, aristocrats and the most powerful politicians and brilliant Enlightenment figures, among them both Kings George I and George II, The Duke of Marlborough, Sir Robert Walpole and Sir Isaac Newton. Harder to determine, however, is who commissioned the bust. As Keno and others (including Franklin himself) have noted, Franklin considered humility to be one of the most important virtues and this would almost certainly have prevented him from commissioning such an expensive vanity project (Keno, 2019, p. 39).
Franklin was a global celebrity, on a possibly unprecedented scale, as Eustace and Keno note, and yet, as the historian Charles Sellers, who spent ten years researching the iconography of Benjamin Franklin, writes in the mid-20th century:
It is profoundly significant that in an age intensely interested in the characters of its great men not one contemporary has left us a complete and adequate description of Franklin’s appearance. Apparently, there was something in the big mouth and friendly eyes, lighted always by humor and understanding, which drew you immediately into the world of his learning, his wisdom, and his feeling. If you came as many did, to gaze with awe upon the great man, this objective attitude would be quickly dispelled by his warm acceptance of you and his readiness to share all his interests with you. You met the man himself. You came away with the friendliest admiration but only as a secondary impression of personal appearance (Eustace and Keno, 2015, p. 11).
As Eustace and Keno summarize, Rysbrack’s bust of Benjamin Franklin is one of the artist’s most exciting portrait busts: of one of the greatest of human beings, by one of Europe’s greatest sculptors (Ibid., p. 7).
As is well-known, Franklin was absolutely pivotal to America’s quest for independence and, as Keno notes, Franklin was the only American to have signed all four documents that created the United States: The Declaration of Independence (1776); The Treaty of Alliance, Amity, and Commerce with France (1778); The Treaty of Peace between England, France, and the United States (1782) and the Constitution (1787) (Keno, 2019, p. 9). And yet this personal study by Rysbrack is perhaps less about Franklin’s extraordinary accomplishments on the world stage. And it is this intimacy that sets Rysbrack’s bust apart from the other busts of Franklin. For while Franklin was a politician, a diplomat, a printer, a scientist, an educator, a philosopher, an engineer, a musical composer, an inventor – his extraordinary career and lists of interests and accomplishments could continue – but it was his humor and his humanity that many contemporaries considered his greatest attributes.
So, in addition to Franklin’s dazzling new physical appearance, this new documentation on the bust, as Eustace and Keno note, is a cache of letters dating from 1782-84 and now in the collections of the American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, that link this bust to the above-mentioned painting of the American Commissioners of the Preliminary Peace Negotiations with Great Britain, now in the Winterthur collections. Furthermore, it also provides an 18th century provenance for the present bust as it can now be documented in West’s studio as early as April of 1782 and was still documented there in March of 1784 (Eustace and Keno, 2015, p. 3). Benjamin West, an American artist, also originally from Pennsylvania, moved to England where he eventually became the official history painter to King George III and was a Founder Member of the Royal Academy and, from 1792, its second President. It is incredibly exciting that Rysbrack’s bust of Franklin can now be documented to have been in West’s studio in the early 1780s and, even though West knew his fellow Pennsylvanian Franklin very well, this bust would have served as a model or aide-memoire while he was working on the painting. For health reasons, Franklin could not come from Paris to London for sittings in West’s studio – so Rysbrack’s bust represented Franklin himself instead.
As Eustace and Keno also note, this bust can only have been executed during Franklin’s second visit to London between 1757 and 1762, as by the time of Franklin’s third visit to London in 1764, Rysbrack was long-retired, had sold most of the contents of his studio and was in poor health (Ibid., p. 5). It has been widely accepted that this bust is the first bust of the ‘First American’. For the entirety of the 19th and almost all of the 20th century, we have associated the sculpted image of Franklin with the busts by the French sculptor Jean-François Houdon (1741-1828). These magnificent busts (the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s version is dated 1778 and the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s is dated a year later), depict Franklin during his time in Paris. Franklin was in the French capital for nine years, from 1776-1785. During this time, he was working ferociously for the American cause. Of course, Franklin’s efforts in Paris were triumphantly successful and culminated in the signing of the Treaty of Paris in 1783 which marked the end of the Revolutionary War and Independence for the new United States. However, as Houdon’s busts clearly show, these efforts had clearly taken a toll. In Houdon’s busts, Franklin, with his heavy-lidded sideways gaze, fleshy face with the folds of his chin almost indistinguishable from that of his lace cravat, show a distinguished elder statesman, both world-wise and certainly weary. But in Rysbrack’s bust from the late 1750s or early 1760s, the artist has not just depicted a man more than twenty years younger. Rysbrack’s Franklin is remarkably, and intensely, alert and his direct gaze which, along with his informal, open-necked, unbuttoned and loose clothing, seems to radiate the curiosity, vitality, warmth, informality and the generosity of spirit Franklin was so celebrated for. And, not incidentally, qualities that at the time were associated with the optimism of this new American Experiment and some of its more international citizens. It is also essential to note, that Rysbrack’s bust was almost certainly sculpted with Benjamin Franklin sitting in front of the artist in his studio, for multiple sittings, while Houdon probably observed Franklin at some remove (Ibid., p. 53 and J. Hinton, Et al., p. 33).
It was fitting that Rysbrack was commissioned for Franklin’s portrait bust. Rysbrack was one of the most accomplished and celebrated sculptors working in England in the first half of the 18th century. The list of his commissions and sitters could not be more impressive and included royalty, aristocrats and the most powerful politicians and brilliant Enlightenment figures, among them both Kings George I and George II, The Duke of Marlborough, Sir Robert Walpole and Sir Isaac Newton. Harder to determine, however, is who commissioned the bust. As Keno and others (including Franklin himself) have noted, Franklin considered humility to be one of the most important virtues and this would almost certainly have prevented him from commissioning such an expensive vanity project (Keno, 2019, p. 39).
Franklin was a global celebrity, on a possibly unprecedented scale, as Eustace and Keno note, and yet, as the historian Charles Sellers, who spent ten years researching the iconography of Benjamin Franklin, writes in the mid-20th century:
It is profoundly significant that in an age intensely interested in the characters of its great men not one contemporary has left us a complete and adequate description of Franklin’s appearance. Apparently, there was something in the big mouth and friendly eyes, lighted always by humor and understanding, which drew you immediately into the world of his learning, his wisdom, and his feeling. If you came as many did, to gaze with awe upon the great man, this objective attitude would be quickly dispelled by his warm acceptance of you and his readiness to share all his interests with you. You met the man himself. You came away with the friendliest admiration but only as a secondary impression of personal appearance (Eustace and Keno, 2015, p. 11).
As Eustace and Keno summarize, Rysbrack’s bust of Benjamin Franklin is one of the artist’s most exciting portrait busts: of one of the greatest of human beings, by one of Europe’s greatest sculptors (Ibid., p. 7).