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1777

Medallion of Benjamin Franklin

Jean-Baptiste Nini

Italian (active France), 1717 - 1786

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Clay medallions of Benjamin Franklin were among the earliest portraits of the statesman available in France. Their maker, Nini, worked for Jacques Donatien Le Ray de Chaumont, Franklin's pro-American landlord. Franklin sent one example to his daughter Sarah and her husband, Richard Bache, who thought the medallion a better likeness than the print by Augustin de Saint-Aubin, which Franklin also sent them.

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Jean-Baptiste Nini, Medallion of Benjamin Franklin, 1777 | Philadelphia Museum of Art