He is generally considered a Self-Made Man, yet there is more than that underlying this superficial definition. They focus on different moments of Franklin’s life and foreground his myriad roles as a businessman, statesman, scientist, diplomat, and so forth.ĢFranklin was a man of the Enlightenment, who was drawn to multiple subjects, from civil administration, to music composition, and to scientific experiments.
They provide quite diverse portraits of Franklin rather than following a stereotypical model. His representations in the city consist of various statues, which were created by different artists at different times, spanning from the late nineteenth to the twenty-first century. It was the town where Franklin escaped to actualize himself and build his own life as a Self-Made Man. It was the first city where sculpture was introduced to America as a form of high-art with Franklin’s bust by Jean-Jacques Caffiéri (Craven 4-7). 1Philadelphia was an important city in the life story of Benjamin Franklin, as well as in American art history.