Marguerite Gérard and Jean-Honoré Fragonard
The Genius of Franklin
1777
Scroll
Physical Qualities
Etching printed in brown, Sheet: 550 x 396 mm. (21 5/8 x 15 9/16 in.)
Image: 478 x 371 mm. (18 13/16 x 14 5/8 in.)
Credit Line
The John Dorsey and Robert W. Armacost Acquisitions Endowment
Object Number
2015.74
Over the course of 1778, Jean-Honoré Fragonard and his young student (and sister-in-law) Marguerite Gérard created a group of nine etchings. Gérard quickly mastered the medium of etching, and by the end of the year, the 17-year-old completed her last and most ambitious etching based on one of Fragonard’s brown wash and black chalk drawings (please see image below). In her etched interpretation of Fragonard’s allegorical composition, Gérard transformed the features of the seated man to those of the aging Benjamin Franklin. Such a change enabled her to capitalize upon the current popularity of this contemporary political figure as well as French support of the American Revolution.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by purchase, 2015; The Old Print Gallery, Washington, DC
BMA, Jacobs rotation, 22 December 2015 - 4 October 2016
Signed: 1
Inscribed: Recto: in plate, at lower center: "ERIPUIT COELO FULMEN SCEPTRUM QUE TIRANNIS / Au GENIE De FRANKLIN [lower line abraded]"; at bottom left, in graphite: "#86984.1" Verso: at center, in graphite: "6321"; at lower left, in graphite: "6121204 [underlined]"
Markings: WM: eagle
