Benjamin Franklin (on a bench) (1987)
Artist: George Lundeen (1948-)Location: University of Pennsylvania, 37th Street and Locust Walk (southeast corner)Sitting on a bench with a newspaperin hand and a pigeon at his side, George Lundeen’s Benjamin Franklin (on a bench) was a gift from the class of 1962 to the University of Pennsylvania in honor of the class’s 25th reunion. (The sculpture’s plaque reads, “Benjamin Franklin on Campus / Created For and Given by the Class of 1962.”) Franklin is shown reading a copy of the The Pennsylvania Gazette, the newspaper that he and Hugh Meredith purchased in 1729. Franklin not only printed the newspaper, but he contributed his own writings under aliases as well. The copy that Franklin is reading is dated May 16, 1987.
Benjamin Franklin (1899)
When artist John J. Boyle was commissioned by Justus C. Strawbridge to create a statue of Benjamin Franklin, he was one of Philadelphia’s most prominent sculptors. (His works include Stone Age in America on Kelly Drive and John Christian Bullitt at City Hall.) Boyle based his renderings of Franklin on extensive research. His portrait was based upon a bust by Jean Antoine Houdon (though Boyle’s version is a younger Franklin), and his clothing was derived from the Duplessis portrait, showing a heavy fur-trimmed surtout covering the plain clothes of the period. The statue was given to the city of Philadelphia by Strawbridge and installed in front of the post office at 9th and Chestnut Streets. It was in 1938 that the city donated the sculpture to the University of Pennsylvania, one of the many institutions that Franklin helped to found. The pedestal is by Frank Miles Day in collaboration with Boyle. Adapted from Public Art in Philadelphia by Penny Balkin Bach (Temple University Press, Philadelphia, 1992), and Sculpture of a City by the Fairmount Park Art Association.To help support the Association for Public Art, please use the Donate button at this links website. You can also donate after the tour using the donation support message after visiting points on the tour.
Split Button (1981)
Artist: Claes Oldenburg (1929-) & Coosje van Bruggen (1942-2009)Location: University of Pennsylvania, Locust Walk Between 34th and 36th StreetsSince commonplace, mass-produced objects dominate American life, Claes Oldenburg makes them the subjects of monuments. Oldenburg’s collaborator on the project was his wife, art historian Coosje van Bruggen, who has worked with him since 1976 on large-scale sculptures. Split Button was commissioned by the University of Pennsylvania as part of the Redevelopment Authority’s 1% program.Like his Clothespin at Centre Square, the Split Button uses incongruity to snap the viewer to attention. It also incorporates a specific visual joke, for Oldenburg speculated that the nearby statue of a corpulent Benjamin Franklin is missing one button. At first the artists planned to create an unbroken button of a grayish-black color, set parallel to the ground to form a bench. But after the initial design was approved, Oldenburg and van Bruggen developed the concept further, giving the button both a fracture and a tilt and painting it entirely white. Oldenburg’s monuments generally cause controversy, and Split Button was no exception. Over the years, however, the Button has become a familiar part of the campus environment. Despite its tilt, students often sit on it. Children play on it and under it and poke their hands through the holes. The inventive Ben Franklin, were he consulted, might well approve this use of his missing button.
Benjamin Franklin in 1723 (or The Young Franklin) (1914)
Artist: R. Tait McKenzie (1867-1938)Location: University of Pennsylvania in front of Weightman Hall, 33rd Street south of Locust StreetR. Tait McKenzie’s portrait of a young Benjamin Franklin was considered appropriate as an example to the students of the University of Pennsylvania, a school that Franklin helped to found. Commissioned in 1910, the figure was modeled in clay from a nude so that the rhythm of walking would be convincing, and the head is based on the bone structure of Houdon’s bust of Franklin. McKenzie’s biographer, Christopher Hussey, describes the concept of the piece: “On leaving his brother’s employ in 1723, Franklin came to New York by water, and thence to Amboy, sleeping all night in the boat. In his autobiography he describes his walk from there to Burlington and his arrival in Philadelphia on Sunday morning.” Inscribed on the statue’s base (designed by Paul Cret) are Franklin’s words summarizing this: “I have been the more particular in this description of my journey, that you may compare such unlikely beginnings with the figure I have since made there.” The other inscription on the base reads: “This memorial dedicated at the 10th reunion of the Class of 1904 is a tribute to the inspiration and example of the founder of the university to many generations of the sons of Pennsylvania.”
Benjamin Franklin Memorial (1938)
Artist: James Earle Fraser (1876-1953) Location: Interior of the Franklin Institute 20th Street and the Benjamin Franklin ParkwayA gift to the Franklin Institute from William L. McLean, this substantial sculpture of Benjamin Franklin by James Earle Fraser was carved from 30 tons of Italian marble and sits on a 92-ton base of Portuguese marble. The artist described his sculpture’s pose: “I have conceived Franklin a massive figure, tranquil in body, with latent power in his hands, but with an inquisitive expression in the movement of his head and the alertness of his eyes, ready to turn the full force of his keen mind on any problem that concerned him.” Once called the nation’s “most famous unknown sculptor,” Fraser is often recognized by his works – the buffalo nickel and a prodigious number of public monuments – rather than by his name. He was raised on the American plains and studied in Paris in his late teens and twenties. His work was shaped by this combination of rugged Americanism with the classical sculptural tradition.
