- Mason Chamberlin
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Chamberlin’s portrait of Benjamin Franklin (1762)
Mason Chamberlin (1727–1787) was an English portrait painter and one of the founding members of the Royal Academy in 1768.
He was a student of Francis Hayman.
He is perhaps best known for a portrait of Benjamin Franklin, commissioned by wealthy Virginian landowner and friend of Franklin's in London, Col. Philip Ludwell III, and painted from life in 1762. It shows Franklin seated in his study with lightning striking outside the window in the background, and a lightning rod on his house. He looks to the left at a set of lightning bells (a device of his own invention), which would ring to signal when lightning was striking the rod. Franklin could then use the electricity in order to perform his experiments.
The original painting is owned by the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Franklin's son William also commissioned a replica of this painting to be made, for Franklin to give him as a gift to hang in the dining room of William's new home—the copy is presumed to have been sent to America, but has since been destroyed.
Later in 1762 (or early 1763) a popular mezzotint was made after it (which may have been part of the agreement between Chamberlin and Ludwell), by Irish-born engraver Edward Fisher (1730–1785). Franklin's son William ordered 100 copies to sell in America, 18 of which Franklin distributed himself, mostly to friends in New England such as Mather Byles, Ezra Stiles, and Franklin's niece's husband Jonathan Williams. This was Franklin's favorite print during the time, partially because of the accurate likeness, for which Chamberlin was successful.
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