The Faces of Benjamin Franklin - Bust Facial Reconstruction

Poor Richard – The First American

“Benjamin Franklin was a Founding Father and a polymath, inventor, scientist, printer, politician, freemason and diplomat. Franklin helped to draft the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution, and he negotiated the 1783 Treaty of Paris ending the Revolutionary War.”

“His scientific pursuits included investigations into electricity, mathematics and mapmaking. A writer known for his wit and wisdom, Franklin also published Poor Richard’s Almanac, invented bifocal glasses and organized the first successful American lending library.”

The bust……a life mask?

Most of my facial reconstructions are from J. I. Browere and Jean Antione Houdon busts made from life masks, however, this Franklin bust is by Jean-Jacques Caffieri. Caffieri was a French sculpture known for his portrait busts in terracotta and marble. Caffieri worked with Houdon for a time. One could assume that perhaps Caffieri used life masks for his creations as well.

I chose Caffieri’s bust for the following reasons: Franklin sat for this bust, Franklin preferred Caffieri’s bust to that of Houdon’s and Caffieri’s bust appears to be the most accurate likeness when compared to Franklin’s death mask.

▬About Digital Yarbs ▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬▬

I'm a Photoshop composition artist who enjoys history. I reconstruct life masks, statues and busts of famous early Americans and historic figures.
Using life masks, I completed a forensic/academic study of how the subjects most likely appeared using Adobe Photoshop to add flesh, hair, and other details. My website, Digital Yarbs features reconstructions and animations of these life masks along with a little history and how the subjects might have looked in daguerreotypes and photographs.

To understand what these historic figures really looked like we cannot rely on paintings as they suffer from “artistic license” and “sympathetic treatment” commonly employed by many contemporary portrait artists. Before photography, the art form of the life mask was the best way to create an exact likeness of an individual. Basically, plaster would be applied to the head and sometimes upper torso to create a mold from which a life mask or bust of the person could be cast. This would result in a three-dimensional, faithful transfer capturing in minute detail the true likeness of the subject.

Website: https://yarbs.net/

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