In the margin of a notebook with the date of January 8 at the seam, Benjamin Franklin Bache, then probably 21, drew several profiles. One of them, the largest, is of his grandfather. Taken with the final portrait by Peale and the mask by an unknown maker, it shows us the aged Franklin who is described so vividly by writers including Jefferson and others.
There is a second, similar, profile, smaller but more confidently drawn, on the page of another notebook used by Bache. It is in the collection of a descendant.
Unsigned sketch of Franklin at the end of his life, by his grandson |
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