File:To the Genius of Franklin by Fragonard c1778.jpg

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Jean-Honoré Fragonard: To the Genius of Franklin   (Wikidata search (Cirrus search) Wikidata query (SPARQL)  Create new Wikidata item based on this file)
Artist
Jean-Honoré Fragonard  (1732–1806)  wikidata:Q127171 q:it:Jean-Honoré Fragonard
 
Jean-Honoré Fragonard
Alternative names
Honoré Fragonard
Description French painter, drawer and etcher
Date of birth/death 5 April 1732 Edit this at Wikidata 22 August 1806 Edit this at Wikidata
Location of birth/death Grasse Paris
Work location
Paris (1749-1756), Rome (1756-1761), Tivoli (1760), Naples (1761), Paris (1761), Northern Netherlands (1773), Orléans (1773), Limoges (1773), Uzerche (1773), Nègrepelisse (1773), Italy (1773-1774), Dresden (20 August 1774-31 August 1774), Paris (1774-1806)
Authority file
artist QS:P170,Q127171
Title
To the Genius of Franklin
Object type painting
object_type QS:P31,Q3305213
Date circa 1778
date QS:P571,+1778-00-00T00:00:00Z/9,P1480,Q5727902
Medium pencil and sepia wash on paper
Dimensions height: 54.9 cm (21.6 in); width: 43.5 cm (17.1 in)
dimensions QS:P2048,54.9U174728
dimensions QS:P2049,43.5U174728
institution QS:P195,Q35525
Current location
Washington, D.C., United States
Notes

White House copy of the circa 1778 artwork Notes from Kloss, William, et al. Art in the White House: A Nation's Pride. Washington, D.C.: The White House Historical Association, 2008:

"Benjamin Franklin's arrival in France in December 1776 as envoy from the self-proclaimed United States of America was greeted with instant enthusiasm. . . . Forewarned of the visit, the artist Fragonard . . . made this . . . drawing to honor Franklin.

"While the sepia has undoubtedly faded, the dazzling effects of light are still apparent. The robed and laurel-wreathed figure seated amid clouds bears no resemblance to Franklin, because the drawing was intended only as a model for a subsequent print. With the rapidity for which he was famous, Fragonard generalized the face, knowing that Franklin's features would be added later, when the print was made for the public. Franklin's likeness was known far and wide through a flood of images then sweeping across France.

"The etching and aquatint print was made by Fragonard's sister-in-law Marguerite Gérard . . . .

"The title used for the White House drawing is the English translation of the French title that appears on the print: Au Génie de Franklin. The title is preceded on the print by a Latin epigram composed by A. R. J. Turgot, economist, statesman, and friend of Franklin's: 'Eripuit coelo fulmen sceptrumque tyrannis--He stole the thunderbolt from the sky and the scepter from tyrants' (referring to Franklin's invention of the lightning rod and his role as a revolutionary)."
Source/Photographer The White House Historical Association
Other versions http://www.whitehouseresearch.org/assetbank-whha/action/viewAsset?id=23


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Date/TimeThumbnailDimensionsUserComment
current04:38, 4 February 2010Thumbnail for version as of 04:38, 4 February 20102,231 × 3,000 (3.26 MB)Scewing (talk | contribs){{Painting | Artist ={{Creator:Jean-Honoré Fragonard}} <!--{{Creator:First Last}}--> | Title = To the Genius of Franklin <!--{{en|''First Last''.}}--> | Year = circa 1778 | Technique =pencil and sepi

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