Alexandre-Georges-Henri Regnault (31 October 1843 – 19 January 1871) was a French painter.

Regnault attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1860 and in 1866 won the Prix de Rome competition. He began several ambitious history paintings while residing in Italy, including Automedon Taming the Horses of Achilles (1868).

At the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War, Regnault, who because of his Prix de Rome bursary was exempt from military duty, volunteered for service as a foot-soldier. He was killed in action at the age of 27 shortly before the end of the war.

Automedon Taming the Horses of Achilles (a painting which measures a gargantuan 315 x 329 cm / 124 x 129 1/2 in) has been in the ownership of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston since 1890. The painting illustrates a story from Homer's Iliad about the Battle of Troy, a ten year war between the Greeks and the Trojans. Automedon, chariot driver for the Greek warrior Achilles, restrains the horses Xanthos (behind) and Balios, before taking them to battle.

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Benjamin Franklin

(January 17, 1706 [O.S. January 6, 1705[1]] – April 17, 1790) was one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. A noted polymath, Franklin was a leading author and printer, satirist, political theorist, politician, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, and diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment and the history of physics for his discoveries and theories regarding electricity. He invented the lightning rod, bifocals, the Franklin stove, a carriage odometer, and the glass 'armonica'. He formed both the first public lending library in America and the first fire department in Pennsylvania.

The quote ‘If passion drives you, let reason hold the reins” is widely attributed to Franklin but is unsourced.

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