Young ben franklin pictures with kite

Painting by Patriarch West

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Background

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Franklin conducted his e

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Photo Caption: Photo Caitlin Martin © 2014 for the Association for Public Art

• Title

  Benjamin Franklin with Kite

• Artist

  Agnes Yarnall (1905 - 1989)

• Year

  1965; relocated 1992, 1994

• Location

  Coxe Park, between Cherry and Appletree Streets

• Medium

  Bronze, marble base

• Dimensions

  Height 6'1"

• Themes

  Benjamin Franklins, Women and Public Art

Commissioned by the Philadelphia Redevelopment Authority

Donated to the Logan Square Civic Association by Philadelphia’s Redevelopment Authority

At A Glance

• One of the first artworks commissioned as part of Philadelphia’s One Percent for Fine Arts program

• Redevelopment Authority donated the sculpture to the Logan Square Civic Association

• Logan Square Civic Association raised the funds to have the artwork installed at Coxe Park in 1994

Commissioned in 1964 by The Franklin Institute, Agnes Yarnall’s Benjamin Franklin with Kite is one of the first artworks commissioned as part of the Redevelopment Authority’s Percent for Art program. At 5 feet and 9 inches high, the sculpture shows Franklin clutching to his kite with his kerchief blowing in the wind as if in a thunderstorm. The artwork was placed in The Franklin Institute’s Research Building in 1966, and remained there until the building was sol

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Portraits

 

We are all familiar with Ben’s portrait on the 100-dollar bill:

This image comes from a H.B. Hall engraving of the Joseph-Siffred Duplessis portrait of an older Benjamin Franklin – and has been used on the $100 bill from 1996 onward.

But Franklin was also one of the most recognizable figures of his own time. He had many formal portraits done, but also etchings, drawings, busts, commemorative medallions, even full-sized statues made – both during his lifetime and after.

The book Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture by Charles Coleman Sellers, Yale University Press 1962 (unfortunately now out of print) contains a wealth of information about the artists who depicted Franklin and provides over 200 illustrations of the various art forms depicting him.

In addition to the voluminous original works of art, an entire cottage industry sprung up copying the originals for “mass production”. Interestingly, medallions seemed to be the most popular image in the late 1700’s – perhaps because nearly everyone could at least own an inexpensive reproduction.

One of the most famous medallions was made by Jean Baptiste Nini (1717-1786) and shows a profile of franklin wearing a fur cap:

Note that this is a much different cap than that shown in my separate blog post regardi