To Benjamin Franklin from Benjamin West, 19 July 1782
From Benjamin West
ALS: American Philosophical Society
London July 19th. 1782
Sir
If I was to permit my friend and nabour Mr. Green to visit Paris without convaying this to your excellency, I should think myself defecient in that friendship I have ever wished to shew him. He is an Artist of distinguished merrit in Mezzatinto engraving, and has done most of the esteemed prints in that manner from my paintings.2 He visits France in the line of his profession, and wishes to have the honor of being known to your excellency before he leves that country;3 for that purpose he will have the satisfaction to present this;—and any favors shewn him and his son4 by your excellency will be greatly esteemed by—Sir Your excellencys greatly Obliged Humble Sert.
Benjn. West
His excellency Benjamin Franklin
Notation: B. West July 19 1782.
2. For the work of Valentine Green (DNB) see George C. Williamson, ed., Bryan’s Dictionary of Painters and Engravers (rev. ed., 5 vols., New York and London, 1903); Alfred Whitman, Valentine Green (London, 1902).
3. Green’s visit to Paris in the summer of 1782 resulted in his writing A Review of the Polite Arts in France, at the Time of their Establishment under Louis the XIVth, compared with their Present State in England … in a letter to Sir Joshua Reynolds … (London, 1782).
4. Rupert Green (c. 1768–1804): DNB under Valentine Green.