Object Record
Images
Metadata
Catalog Number |
58.P.44 |
Object Name |
Painting |
Title |
Portrait of Deborah Read Franklin |
Artist |
Wilson, Benjamin, attributed |
Date |
1758-59 |
Description |
Waist-length portrait with subject turned to her right, in front of a dark gray background. The subject has brown hair, brown eyes, half of her hair is pulled back, and she has a round face with a fair but rosy complexion. She wears a dress of mauve silk, with a ruffle of translucent, white material along the low-cut neckline. A shawl of changeant blue silk is draped over her shoulders. She wears a jeweled ornament in her hair above her forehead, as well as a pendant pearl earring and pearl ornament on the sleeve closest to the viewer's right. Unsigned and undated. |
Label |
The APS owns the only known portrait of Benjamin Franklin's wife, Deborah Read Franklin. The portrait is attributed to the English artist Benjamin Wilson, who also painted Franklin in London in 1758 or 1759. Since Deborah never traveled there, Wilson must have based this portrait on an earlier American painting, now lost. The paintings of both Benjamin and Deborah were sent to Philadelphia, where they adorned the Franklin home until the American Revolution. Franklin later related, "Our English Enemies when they were in Possession of this City and of my House, made a Prisoner of my Portrait, and carried it off with them, leaving that of its Companion, my wife, by itself, a kind of widow." The confiscated portrait of Benjamin Franklin is now in the White House. |
Medium |
Oil on canvas |
Dimensions |
H-41.5 W-36 inches |
Dimension Details |
Framed |
Credit line |
American Philosophical Society |
Search Terms |
18th century eighteenth century painting Founding Father women |