aixcentric

Here’s a lovely start to the week with this fine portrait chosen by President Joe Biden to hang near his desk in the Oval Office.  It shows Benjamin Franklin (1706-1790), one of the Founding Fathers of the US, painted by Joseph-Siffred Duplessis from Carpentras.

Benjamin Franklin

What an insightful portrait from this Provencal artist, born in Carpentras in 1725.  He found success as a portraitist in Paris, sat out the Reign of Terror in Carpentras, then became the curator of the new museum at Versailles where he painted Benjamin Franklin.  The portrait is on loan from the National Portrait Gallery in Washington…and has also found its way into many an American pocket on the 100 dollar bill.

And here is the artist himself in a wonderfully detailed self-portrait, painted in Versailles in 1801, a year before his death.

Click the link to see what else President Biden has chosen for the Oval Office:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-55750527