Benjamin Franklin putting the moves on a woman
Susan reporting,It’s easy to think of America’s Founders only through the images that are left of them, the stoic and often-idealized portraits painted by John Singleton Copley, Gilbert Stuart, and Charles Willson Peale. But regardless of how posterity venerates them, the Founders were a decidedly mixed group in their behavior, beliefs, and morals, as just…
via A Scandalous Sketch of Benjamin Franklin with a Lady, c1768 — Two Nerdy History Girls
This was an interesting post that I noticed this morning from Two Nerdy History Girls. We know that Benjamin Franklin had a weakness for women, but those descriptions came from words that couldn’t be reconciled with the image of the gentleman on the $100.
I don’t know about you, but my eyes really opened with Tom Wilkinson’s portrayal of Franklin in “John Adams.” He was a scene stealer in the mini-series. I particularly remember the scene where an angry John Adams bursts into a room to argue with Franklin, only to find the man playing chess in a tub with a French countess.
Now there are these sketches done by Charles Willson Peale when he was still a journeyman artist. According to the American Philosophical Society caption done with the two pictures in this post: While studying art in London, Charles Willson Peale called upon Benjamin Franklin uninvited. Peale accidentally witnessed the well-known Franklin engaging in promiscuous behavior with a lady. Instead of leaving, Peale secretly sketched the scandalous scene for future generations.
Of the two, I think the one above is the most scandalous. Franklin seems to have his hand on the unnamed woman’s breast while she has her hand on his crotch. It is even more scandalous when you remember that this must have been done in public and lasted for a while for Peale to make not one, but two drawings.
My question is: Given society’s tendency nowadays to discount all the good someone does for even one sin (i.e., Thomas Jefferson), is Benjamin Franklin, on balance, a good or bad person?
