Edward Savage
Benjamin Franklin

EngraverAmerican, 1761–1817
CultureAmerican
Titles
  • Benjamin Franklin
Date1793
PlaceLondon, England
MediumMezzotint on wove paper
DimensionsPlate: 17 3/4 × 13 7/8 in. (45.1 × 35.3 cm)
Sheet: 20 7/8 × 16 in. (53 × 40.6 cm)
Credit LineThe Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Miss Ima Hogg
Object numberB.63.160
Current Location
Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens
Federal Parlor
On view

Explore Further

Department
Bayou Bend
Object Type
Description

In 1793, Edward Savage published a print of George Washington and several months later issued this print of Franklin.  As the two sitters are arranged to face each other, it is thought that the prints were conceived as a pair.

Related examples: Shadwell 1969, p. 45, no. 83; the Martin portrait painting is at the White House (White House 1975, pp. 54–55); Washington print at Winterthur (Fowble 1987, no. 201).

Book excerpt: David B. Warren, Michael K. Brown, Elizabeth Ann Coleman, and Emily Ballew Neff. American Decorative Arts and Paintings in the Bayou Bend Collection. Houston: Princeton Univ. Press, 1998.


Provenance[Kennedy Galleries, New York]; purchased by Miss Ima Hogg, 1963; given to MFAH.
Exhibition History"Radicals and Revolutionaries: America's Founding Fathers," Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, March 10–May 28, 2018.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Inscribed below image: D. Martin pinxt.[t superscript with period [.] underneath] [left]; E. Savage sculpt.[t superscript with period [.] underneath] [right]; Benjamin Franklin L.L.D.---F.R.S. / London published Septr.[r superscript with period [.] underneath] 17. 1793, by E. Savage, No.[o superscript with period [.] underneath] 50, Hatton Garden [center]
[no marks]

Cataloguing data may change with further research.

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