Benjamin Franklin

Charles Dixon (English, 1748–1798)

1757

Medium/TechniqueWatercolor on ivory

Dimensions5.1 x 3.8 cm (2 x 1 1/2 in.)

Credit LineGift of Dr. Franklin Greene Balch

Accession number43.1318

On View

Not on view

ClassificationsMiniatures

Collections

Europe

InscriptionsReverse: FranklinProvenanceOctober, 1757, Benjamin Franklin (b. 1706 - d. 1790) (original commission); 1757/1758, sent from Benjamin Franklin to his sister, Jane Franklin Mecom (b. 1712 - d. 1794) [see note 1]; by descent to her great-grandson, Benjamin Franklin Greene (b. 1780 - d. 1864) [see note 2]; by descent to his son, Franklin Greene (b. 1807); by descent to his daughter, Emily Greene (b. 1835); by descent to her nephew, Franklin Greene Balch (b. 1864); 1943, gift of Dr. Balch to the MFA. (Accession Date: November 10, 1943)

NOTES:
[1] For more on the commission see Charles Coleman Sellers, "Jane Mecom's Little Picture," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society 99, no. 6 (December, 1955), pp. 433-435 and ibid., "Benjamin Franklin in Portraiture" (New Haven and London, 1962), pp. 236-237. [2] In a letter from Franklin Greene Balch to the MFA (October 19, 1943) he specifies the provenance of the miniature from his grandfather, Benjamin Franklin Greene.