Oil on canvas; 35 7/8 x 28 1/2 inches (91.1 x 72.4 cm). Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA.
Painted while Franklin served as the U.S. Commissioner in France, arguing the American cause. In front of him is a map labeled Philadelphia.
Oil on canvas; 35 7/8 x 28 1/2 inches (91.1 x 72.4 cm). Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA.
Painted while Franklin served as the U.S. Commissioner in France, arguing the American cause. In front of him is a map labeled Philadelphia.
More than any other figure who strode across the revolutionary stage, [Joseph] Warren gave his devotion to the American cause simply because he believed in it. Others believed as passionately, of course; but for Samuel Adams political agitation was a profession which had rescued him from a debtors’ prison; James Otis had deep grievances against the royal government because of their mistreatment of his father; John Hancock was a millionaire merchant who made much of his money from smuggling and owed the British Revenue Service over £100,000 in fines; as a lawyer, John Adams was naturally drawn into the political arena. Warren, as a doctor could have remained aloof, as many of his fellow physicians in Boston did. They were the only class in Massachusetts who were not pressured to join the cause.