Portrait print of Benjamin Franklin (Chamberlin/Martinet), 1773

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A line engraving taken after the Edward Fisher mezzotint that was after the Mason Chamberlin 1762 portrait. Beneath the image on the left are the words "Dessiné et Gravé par F. N. Martinet." Centered below the image: "Il a ravi le feu des Cieux / Il fait fleurir les Arts en des Climats sauvages / L'Amérique le place à la tête des Sages / La Grèce l'auroit mis au nombre de ses Dieux." (He has torn fire from the heavens, he has made the arts flourish in the wilderness. America has placed him at the head of her sages, Greece would have numbered him among her gods.)

The engraving is based closely on Fisher's mezzotint and Chamberlin's portrait, but it has been altered in some details, "brightened," and given stronger contrasts. It served as the frontispiece for the 1773 French edition of Franklin's writings. Franklin wrote to his wife, "To the French Edition they have prefixed a Print of me, which tho' a Copy of that by Chamberlin, has got so French a Countenance, that you would take me for one of that lively Nation." (September 1, 1773)

Multiple original examples of this print exist, including in the collection of a descendent of Franklin, with a family history of having been owned by Franklin.

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