Benedict Arnold and Men (jacket design for Kenneth Roberts' book, Rabble in Arms)

Inscriptions

Signed, lower left: N. C. Wyeth; stretcher stamped '98 WEBER [in rectangle]; inscribed on old cardboard backing, in black crayon: Geo W. Rand / Hanover / N.H.; printed label on old cardboard backing: Presented to Dartmouth College / through the / Friends of the Dartmouth Library

Label

When historical novelist Kenneth Roberts commissioned Newell Convers Wyeth to create this painting as a book cover for Rabble in Arms (1933), he already had a detailed theme and composition in mind. Roberts selected the scene of the Retreat from Quebec in 1776, where Arnold commanded the rear guard and led wounded soldiers to safety. Drawing on his extensive research into Benedict Arnold’s life and military campaigns, Roberts sought to reposition him as “the most brilliant soldier of the Revolution.” Wyeth’s painting faithfully captured Roberts’s vision, depicting Arnold as a hero marked by responsibility and wisdom despite his more popular legacy as a traitor.

From the 2025-26 exhibition Revolution Reconsidered: History, Myth, and Propaganda, curated by Michael W. Hartman (Jonathan Little Cohen Curator of American Art), Haely Chang (Jane and Raphael Bernstein Associate Curator of East Asian Art), Elizabeth Rice Mattison (Andrew W. Mellon Curator of Academic Programming and Curator of European Art), Ashley B. Offill (Curator of Collections), and Evonne Fuselier (Hood Museum Board of Advisors Mutual Learning Fellow)

Exhibition History

American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Museum of Art, Israel Sack Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, June 9-December 9, 2007.

Revolution Reconsidered: History, Myth, and Propaganda, Harteveldt Family Gallery and Owen Robertson Cheatham Gallery, Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth College, Hanover, New Hampshire, October 18, 2025 - August 8, 2026.

Publication History

Kenneth Roberts, Rabble In Arms, Camden: Down East Books, 1996 (3rd printing), Cover illustration

Roberts, Kenneth. "Rabble in Arms". Doubleday Publishing, date ? Cover Illustration (copyright dates are 1933 and 1947; this printing most likely 1947 - kpo 8/7/96

Barbara J. MacAdam, American Art at Dartmouth: Highlights from the Hood Muesum of Art, Hanover: Trustees of Dartmouth College, 2007, p. 95, no. 71.

Christine B. Podmaniczky, N.C. Wyeth: Catalogue Raisonne of Paintings, 2 Volumes, Chadds Ford, Pennsylvania: Brandywine River Museum/ Wyeth Foundation for American Art, London: Scala Publishers Limited, 2008, 833 pp., color ill. p. 543.

Provenance

Kenneth Roberts (1885-1957); given to present collection, 1937.

This record is part of an active database that includes information from historic documentation that may not have been recently reviewed. Information may be inaccurate or incomplete. We also acknowledge some language and imagery may be offensive, violent, or discriminatory. These records reflect the institution’s history or the views of artists or scholars, past and present. Our collections research is ongoing.

We welcome questions, feedback, and suggestions for improvement. Please contact us at: Hood.Collections@dartmouth.edu

Subjects