Date unknown

Figure of William Penn

The most familiar image of William Penn is derived from Benjamin West's 1771-72 painting William Penn's Treaty with the Indians. Although the historical event took place one hundred years earlier, West's depiction showed him as a portly figure in mid-eighteenth-century rather than seventeenth-century dress. Subsequent artists followed this precedent, including Henry Inman when he was commissioned in 1832 to paint a monumental portrait of Penn for Philadelphia's Independence Hall. Inman's image was widely circulated through engravings, and one of these served as the inspiration for this carved figure. As in the Inman portrait, Penn is shown holding the charter of his colony and wearing a hat, a sign of the Quakers' refusal to acknowledge any social hierarchy.