Franklin Before the Lords in Council, Whitehall Chapel, London, 1774

Christian Schussele's painting of 1856, engraved by Robert Whitechurch and published in Philadelphia in 1859: Benjamin Franklin standing silent before the Privy Council in the Cockpit at Whitehall on January 29, 1774, while Solicitor General Alexander Wedderburn attacks him over the Hutchinson letters. Large impression, framed.

The hearing was the end of Franklin's effort to hold the empire together. He was dismissed as deputy postmaster general two days later, and is said to have worn the same suit of Manchester velvet to sign the treaty of alliance with France in 1778.

From Catalog IV

The Cockpit as the nineteenth century imagined it: Franklin standing at the center, composed and alone, Wedderburn gesturing from the table, Lord Gower presiding, the lords amused. Schussele's painting hangs at the Huntington; Whitechurch's engraving made it the standard image of the moment Franklin gave up on the empire. This large impression hangs in the collection between the Stamp Act material and the Declaration, which is where it belongs.