PORTRAITURE OF WILLIAM PENN.
appearance of Penn at the age of 38, when he met the Indians first in council.
In an admirable sketch of the private life of William Penn, Mr. Joshua Francis Fisher very justly says: "Mr. West, and I believe all other painters who have introduced the early Quakers into their pictures, are chargeable with great mistakes in the costumes they have selected for them; in many instances giving them hats and coats of a form not even invented for half a century after the date of the scene they have wished to represent upon their canvas." Mr. Fisher
lin the loan of ' Penn's picture ; ' for, in a letter to his Lordship from the Doctor, written from Londonv on the 3d of January, 1760, he refers to this offer. It will appear, however, by the Doctor's letter, that he conceived the picture to be a portrait of William Penn, the founder of Pennsylvania; perhaps, from Lord Kames having only mentioned it as being 'Penn's picture,' without designating him as Ad- miral Penn. That part of the Doctor's letter which relates to this subject, is in these words : "' Your Lordship's kind offer of Penn's picture is exceedingly obliging. ' But, were it certainly his picture, it would be too valuable a curiosity for me to think of accepting it ; I should only desire the favor of leave to take a copy of it. I could wish to know the history of the picture before it came into your hands, and the grounds for supposing it his. I have at present some doubt of it : first, because the primitive Quakers used to declare against pict- ures as a vain expense; a man suffering his por- trait to be taken, was condemned as pride ; and I think to this day it is very little practiced among them. Then, it is on a board ; and I imagine the practice of painting portraits on boards did not come down so low as Penn's time ; but of this I am not certain.' His 'other reason' is stated in the text: 'I doubt, too,' Franklin goes on to say, 'whether the whisker was not quite out of use, at the time when Penn must have been of the age ap- pearing in the face of that picture. And yet, not- withstanding these reasons, I am not without some hope that it may be his, because I know some emi- nent Quakers have had their pictures privately drawn, and deposited with trusty friends ; and I know also that there is extant at Philadelphia, a very good picture of Mrs. Penn, his last wife. After all, I own I have a strong desire to be satisfied con- cerning this picture, and, as Bevan is yet living here, and some other old Quakers that remember William Penn, who died but in 1718, I would wish to have it sent me, carefully packed in a box, by the wagon (for I would not trust it by sea), that I may obtain their opinion. The charges I shall very cheerfully pay; and if it proves to be Penn's picture, I shall be gratefully obliged to your Lordship for leave to take a copy of it, and will cheerfully return the original.'" " Lord Kames V Life" by Lord Wood- houselee, p. 265. Lord Woodhouselee's " Memoirs of the Life of Lord Kames " states that the portrait referred to was sent to Dr. Franklin and never returned. It proved to be the portrait of Admiral Penn the father of William. The last trace of this picture is that Richard Bache, a grandson of Dr. Franklin, placed it about 1809 in the Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia.
