Benjamin Franklin face swap

Where this one comes from

Joseph-Siffred Duplessis painted Franklin in Paris in the 1770s and 80s, during the nine years Franklin spent there as the American envoy persuading France to bankroll a revolution. He was a celebrity in the city — wearing a fur cap and no wig, playing the rustic philosopher to an audience that loved it — and his face went onto snuffboxes and prints all over Europe. The version used here is in the Metropolitan Museum, and this is the likeness the United States eventually put on its largest common banknote.

What is in the picture

Grey hair to the shoulders and no wig, which was itself a statement in the Paris of the 1780s; a plain brown coat; a fur-trimmed collar; and a completely level gaze. The face is heavy, the eyes are small and amused, and the mouth has the beginnings of something. Duplessis was a specialist in exactly this — a plain ground, no props, no allegory, and a great deal of attention paid to what the features are doing.

When people use it

For being the reasonable adult in a stupid situation. It suits advice nobody asked for, and it is the face for a plan that will obviously work.

How your face lands in it

A large frontal head, evenly lit, against a plain dark ground, with long grey hair down either side and the features entirely clear. One of the most reliable targets in the catalogue. The hair stays, so whatever you upload comes back grey and shoulder-length.

Benjamin Franklin — Joseph-Siffred Duplessis, c. 1785. Joseph-Siffred Duplessis died in 1802, so the painting has been in the public domain for over two centuries and the Google Art Project reproduction is published on that basis. Source

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