{"id":9677,"date":"2017-02-16T14:59:08","date_gmt":"2017-02-16T19:59:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/?post_type=product&#038;p=9677"},"modified":"2024-12-16T00:08:26","modified_gmt":"2024-12-16T05:08:26","slug":"portrait-historical-american-benjamin-franklin-electricity-experiment-benjamin-west-antique-mezzotint-print-c-1900","status":"publish","type":"product","link":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/product\/portrait-historical-american-benjamin-franklin-electricity-experiment-benjamin-west-antique-mezzotint-print-c-1900\/","title":{"rendered":"Portrait, Historical, American, Benjamin Franklin, Electricity Experiment, Benjamin West, Antique Mezzotint Print, c. 1900"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Godefroy Mayer was a French publisher and print seller based in Paris at the turn of the 20th century. He also was a noted and knowledgeable collector of Americana. A 1902 edition of <strong>The Publisher\u2019s Weekly <\/strong>noted that his shop on the Rue Pigalle carried 1304 titles including \u201crare portraits, views and historical prints relating to America, etc.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Full publication information \u201cFrom the Original Picture by Benjamin West, P.R.A. Paris, Published by Godefroy Mayer, No. 15, Rue Pigalle.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Condition: Generally very good, the colors bright, with the usual overall light toning and wear. Some scattered foxing, mostly confined to the margins and can be matted out. Some tape residue verso from former matting, not affecting the front.<\/p>\n<p>References:<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBenjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky.\u201d <em>PhiladelphiaMuseum of Art.<\/em> 2009. http:\/\/www.philamuseum.org\/collections\/permanent\/57044.html (8 September 2009).<\/p>\n<p><em>The Publishers Weekly.<\/em> Vol. 61 Philadelphia: R.R. Bowker Company, 1902. p. 1178. Online at <em>Google Books<\/em>. http:\/\/books.google.com\/books?id=v_27AAAAIAAJ&amp;dq (8 September 2009).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Benjamin West (1738-1820) (after)<br \/>\n<strong>Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky<\/strong><br \/>\nGodefroy Mayer, Paris: c. 1900<br \/>\nBlindstamp lower left: &#8220;Cercle Librairie Estampes HHR&#8221;<br \/>\nColor-printed mezzotint, chine appliqu\u00e9 on paper<br \/>\n15 x 11 inches, image<br \/>\n15.75 x 11.75 inches, platemark<br \/>\n21.25 x 16.25 inches, overall<br \/>\n$1,500<\/p>\n<p>Portrait of Benjamin Franklin performing his famous experiment of June 1752 in which he attached a key to a kite and flew it in a thunderstorm in order to prove that lightning was electricity. The print is based on a small oil painting by Benjamin West (1738-1820) created in about 1816 and now in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. West\u2019s style is allied with the Romanticism popular at the time &#8212; a heroic Franklin draped in a billowing, windblown red cape against a stormy sky. As the museum\u2019s web site points out, this dramatic depiction \u201crises to the level of allegory\u2026with Franklin perched on clouds and surrounded by angelic assistants.\u201d West and Franklin were friends in London between 1765 and 1775 and Franklin was godfather to one of West\u2019s sons. Nonetheless, Franklin did not pose for the portrait: \u201cRather, West seems to have relied on an engraving or copy after a miniature portrait by the French artist Jean-Baptiste Weyler of about 1782\u201d (Philadelphia Museum of Art, see References below).<\/p>\n<p>Product Description Continues Below<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":9679,"template":"","meta":{"wds_primary_product_brand":0,"wds_primary_product_cat":0,"footnotes":""},"product_brand":[],"product_cat":[932,904],"product_tag":[61,2423,4679,743,4678,4680,245,41,4677,2050,165,1673,2510,1307],"class_list":{"0":"post-9677","1":"product","2":"type-product","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"product_cat-americana","7":"product_cat-portraits","8":"product_tag-20th-century","9":"product_tag-benjamin","10":"product_tag-chine-applique","11":"product_tag-drawing","12":"product_tag-electricity","13":"product_tag-experiment","14":"product_tag-franklin","15":"product_tag-french","16":"product_tag-kite","17":"product_tag-mezzotint","18":"product_tag-portrait","19":"product_tag-print","20":"product_tag-sky","21":"product_tag-west","22":"post","23":"post-with-thumbnail","24":"post-with-thumbnail-large","26":"first","27":"instock","28":"purchasable","29":"product-type-simple"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/9677","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/product"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/9677\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41968,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product\/9677\/revisions\/41968"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9679"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9677"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"product_brand","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_brand?post=9677"},{"taxonomy":"product_cat","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_cat?post=9677"},{"taxonomy":"product_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.georgeglazer.com\/wpmain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/product_tag?post=9677"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}