Benjamin Franklin Statue

"Washington's statue of Franklin was designed by a New York-based sculptor-designer, Westphalian-born Ernst Plassman (1823-1877) and sculpted in marble in Washington by Jacques Jouvenal at his studio on D Street NW, between 9th and 10th streets. Sculptor Jacques Jouvenal was born in 1829 in Pinache, today part of the town of Wiernsheim, Baden-Württemberg, of a Waldensian Protestant family. Jacques Jouvenal emigrated to the United States in June 1853 and moved from New York to Washington in 1855, where he spent the rest of his life as a sculptor and stonecutter. Jacques Jouvenal's sons, Adolph H. and Rudolph Jouvenal, were also well-known sculptors and stonecutters in Washington."