Benjamin Franklin -- politician, diplomat, author, inventor, sage, kite flyer and musician -- was born on January 17th, 1706 and lived a most impressive 84 years. His best known and eagerly desired portrait is on the American $100 bill, but it should be of no surprise that many other artistic representations of Franklin were made throughout his lifetime (click on any of the paintings for a larger view). Pictured here are Franklin's first portrait by Robert Feke in 1748, with young Ben seeming a bit dandified in his hand pose and sporting ruffly cuffs -- this in contrast to Benjamin Wilson's 1759 likeness of a more confident and assured Franklin, and if you look closely you can see a flicker of lightning in the background. (The wild bolt is about to hit a church steeple, but the church is likely grounded by a Franklin lightning rod.) The subtlety of Franklin's electrical experiment in Wilson's painting is the complete opposite of Benjamin West's 1816
Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky, with our departed forefather in the midst of cherubs and divine guidance like a conduit between the heavens and earth.
British artist David Martin's 1767 portrait of Franklin places America's wise man in a setting of lush knowledge, amid tones of red and gold and blue along with books and papers and a bust of Sir Isaac Newton looking on with further inspiration and approval. Perhaps Franklin was pondering his
13 Virtues in Martin's painting, though Franklin was human enough to admit that even he had trouble putting all of the ideals into action simultaneously. And finally, the elderly Franklin appears in Charles Wilson Peale's 1785 portrait, around the time that various health problems began to take their toll on Frankin's otherwise hearty being.
I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen as the representative of our country; he is a bird of bad moral character; like those among men who live by sharping and robbing, he is generally poor, and often very lousy. The turkey is a much more respectable bird. (Benjamin Franklin, 1784)
