Object Status:
Unlocated
Accession Date:
July 1777
Primary Source Reference:
Du Simitière Memorandum Books, Library of Congress, fol. 23v
Notes:
On list of "Paintings and Drawings done."
A profile portrait of Arnold (1741-1801) by Du Simitière was one of a set of fourteen engraved and published in Paris by Benoît-Louis Prévost (ca. 1735-ca. 1804) in 1781 as Collection des Portraits des Généraux, Ministres & Magistrats qui se sont rendus célèbres dans la Révolution des Treize Etats-Unis de l'Amerique Septentrionale. Du Simitière sent his portraits to France in 1779; by the time they were engraved and published Arnold had turned traitor; his portrait carries the inscription "déserté de l'Armée des Etats-Unice le 3. Octobre 1780."
Carl Van Doren wrote that Du Simitière's was "the only likeness of Arnold known to have been made from life and probably the most lifelike." Secret History of the American Revolution (New York, 1941), p. 160
