Benjamin Franklin caused a sensation when he arrived in Paris in December 1776 seeking support for America's struggle for independence: nobles vied to entertain him, and artists scrambled to portray him. Although several artists produced sculpted busts of the visiting diplomat, perhaps the best-known image of Franklin was conceived in 1778 by Jean-Antoine Houdon, who would become the leading portrait sculptor of the period. Encountering Genius investigates the making of Houdon's marble bust of Franklin—perhaps the finest version realized—shedding new light on this enduring portrait (now in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art). Drawing upon dramatic and visually compelling new technical research, this publication's three essays analyze the materials and processes used in creating Houdon's sculpture, contextualize the iconic portrait, and compare the four most important versions of Houdon's sculpture side-by-side.

Encountering Genius: Houdon's Portraits of Benjamin Franklin

Arts & Photography

Hinton, Jack

Lins, Andrew

Meighan, Melissa S.

History & Criticism

Philadelphia Museum of Art

The Art of German Stoneware, 1300-1900: From the Charles W. Nichols Collection and the Philadelphia Museum of Art

Beautiful and eminently useful, stonewares produced in the German-speaking lands from the Middle Ages onward were highly valued for their durability and suitability for a range of domestic and social uses. Widely traded throughout Europe, they were also among the first European ceramics to reach colonial North America. During the Renaissance the addition of brilliant salt glazes—s well as relief imagery that communicated with the user—raised the status of these wares. Later examples introduced abstract floral or geometric decorations and more unusual, original forms, which retained broad cultural significance.About ninety fine stoneware pieces from the Philadelphia Museum of Art and a promised private collection testify here to the success, artful decoration, and fascinating variety of this medium. Jack Hinton describes the developments in stoneware through these notable examples, and beautiful color images bring their details vividly to life.

Yale University Press

<div>A celebration of the exceptional collection of Renaissance art assembled by Edmond Foulc and its purchase by the Philadelphia Museum of Art In 1930, the Philadelphia Museum of Art acquired the collection of medieval and Renaissance sculpture and decorative arts assembled by Edmond Foulc (1828-1916). Foulc's&nbsp;beautiful Paris residence was an important gathering place for like-minded art enthusiasts and collectors such as Frédéric Spitzer, Alexander Basilewsky, and Émile Gavet, and this book explores his collecting practice in context as well as the museum's efforts to secure these treasures for its new building. An extended essay on the collection's highlights includes discussions of famous works such as the choir screen from the Château de Pagny, an enamel triptych by the Master of the Large Foreheads, the Virgin and Child by Desiderio da Settignano, and Adoration of the Christ Child by Luca della Robbia, in addition to magnificent examples of cutlery, metalwork, and&nbsp; furniture.</div>

Renaissance Treasures from the Edmond Foulc Collection

In 1815, Joseph, elder brother of Napoleon Bonaparte, arrived in America, bringing with him his vast and exquisite collection of eighteenth-century French painting, and a new American taste for eighteenth-century French painting was born. America Collects Eighteenth-century French Painting brings together some of the best and most unusual examples of this type of art that American museums have to offer, and tells their stories on a national stage. Who were the collectors, curators, museum directors and dealers responsible for bringing eighteenth-century French painting to America? Where are the paintings now? The book considers America's very real fascination with France in the eighteenth century: a staunch ally in the Revolutionary wars, a cultural and intellectual model for Franklin, Jefferson and other Americans abroad. It also looks at the way in which the cultural ideal of eighteenth-century France has continued to endure in the American imagination.

America Collects Eighteenth-Century French Painting

Rishel, Joseph J.

Hyde, Melissa

ROSENBERG, Pierre

Bordes, Philippe

Jackall, Yuriko

Lund Humphries

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Books by Hinton, Jack