ARTIST SPOTLIGHT: Edward Hicks

Edward Hicks (1780-1849) was an American painter known for his naive depictions of the farms and landscapes of Pennsylvania and New York, and especially for his many versions of the Peaceable Kingdom, an eschatological state inferred from texts such as the Book of Isaiah.

The Cornell Farm, oil on canvas by Edward Hicks (1848)
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

He is sometimes considered a primitive painter due to the depiction of the “state of nature” they found in Pennsylvania (Penn – Sylvania, from Latin silva: (rain)forest), which must have been an area of outstanding natural beauty. Naive features can be seen in the tendency toward the use of brilliant, saturated colours, rather than more subtle mixtures and tones, as well as the characteristic absence of perspective and the sense of still space. His works bear a slight resemblance to the paintings of the French artist Henri Rousseau. He is also called a ‘folk’ painter, perhaps due to his wish to preserve his religious traditions, as a Quaker, in his paintings.

Noah's Ark, oil on canvas by Edward Hicks (1846)
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania

Tiger in a Tropical Storm. Surprised!, oil on canvas by Henri Rousseau (1891)
The National Gallery, London

The Peaceable Kingdom depicts Hicks’ belief, as a Quaker, that Pennsylvania was the fulfilment of Isaiah’s prophecy (11:6-9) of justice and gentleness between all men and beasts. William Penn and other Quakers appear on the left of the picture, making their treaty with the Native Americans. Penn (1644-1718) was an English Quaker leader and advocate of religious freedom, who oversaw the founding of the American Commonwealth of Pennsylvania as a haven for Quakers, who were persecuted in the Puritan-run Massachusetts, and other religious minorities of Europe. As a matter of fact, at that time Pennsylvania was run under Quaker principles, especially pacifism and religious freedom. Other colonies that tolerated Quakers were the Province of New Jersey and Rode Island.

Peaceable Kingdom, oil on canvas by Edward Hicks (1834)
National Gallery of Art, Washington DC

Isaiah 11:6-9 (King James Version)
6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling [= fattened animal] together; and a little child shall lead them.
7 And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox.
8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' [= a mythical animal depicted as a two-legged dragon (or wyvern) with a cock's head] den.
9 They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.

Quakers, whose formal title is Religious Society of Friends, is a Christian group that arouse in mid-17th-century England, dedicated to living in accordance with the Inward Light, or direct inward apprehension or awareness of God that allows a person to know God’s will for him or her. They are not too dogmatic because they think that creeds, priests, rituals and other ecclesiastical forms (that is theologies) may be an obstruction between the believer and God. They see faith as something in an ongoing development. Although they are often said to be a Christian denomination, not all Quakers regard themselves as Christians, but rather as members of a universal religion that has many Christian elements, due to historical reasons. In fact, they do not celebrate any sacrament.

Hicks had to contend with the supposed contradiction between committing himself to art and the Quaker disapproval for the vanity that could be seen in being a painter. His tendency to convey certain morals or teachings through his paintings is, therefore, understandable. Hicks continued to travel, preach and paint until his death in 1849.

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