Benjamin West was a self-taught Neoclassical painter in America. Here is his 1816 painting Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky, the famous polymath and one of the founders of modern America, looks to the heavens in a dramatic scene of thunder and lightning with his eyes similarly alight with curiosity and inspiration.
He is surrounded by the implements of discovery and science, as befitting his wide interests, and also by children both aiding his exploits, as his curiosity is shown to be childlike, and learning from him.
Benjamin West’s Benjamin Franklin Drawing Electricity from the Sky is in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.