General Washington

Du Simitière sketched Washington and twelve other Revolutionary leaders in Philadelphia in 1779, intending the images to illustrate a projected history of the period. Because expert printmakers were rare on this side of the Atlantic, the artist sent his drawings to Paris to be engraved and published. Shipped back in February 1781, the first impressions omitted the sitters’ names in case they fell into British hands and were used to target American generals. After the Battle of Yorktown in October 1781, the sitters’ names were added to subsequent printings. As few Europeans at the time knew what Washington or his fellow revolutionaries looked like, the set proved popular and prompted British copies in 1783.