Edward Hicks was an American primitive, or folk, painter known for his naive depictions of the farms and landscape of Pennsylvania and New York, and especially for his many versions of The "Peaceable Kingdom."
Background
Edward Hicks was born in his grandfather's mansion at Attleboro, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. His parents were Anglican. Isaac Hicks, his father, was a Loyalist who was left without any money after the British defeat in the Revolutionary War. After young Edward's mother died when he was eighteen months old, Matron Elizabeth Twining – a close friend of his mother's – raised him as one of her own at their farm, known as the Twining Farm. He apparently also resided at the David Leedom Farm. She also taught him the Quaker beliefs, which had a great effect on the rest of his life.
Education
Hicks was entirely self-taught since he believed that organized education was a tool of the devil. At the age of thirteen Hicks began an apprenticeship to coach makers William and Henry Tomlinson. He stayed with them for seven years, during which he learned the craft of coach painting.
Career
In 1800 Edward Hicks left the Tomlinson firm to earn his living independently as a house and coach painter, and in 1801 he moved to Milford to work for Joshua C. Canby, a coach maker. Dissatisfied with his life, he started to attend Quaker meetings regularly, and in 1803 he was accepted for membership in the Society of Friends.
In 1812 his congregation recorded him as a minister, and by 1813 he began traveling throughout Philadelphia as a Quaker preacher. To meet the expenses of traveling, and for the support of his growing family, Hicks decided to expand his trade to painting household objects and farm equipment as well as tavern signs. His painting trade was lucrative, but it upset some in the Quaker community, because it contradicted the plain customs they respected. In 1815 Hicks briefly gave up ornamental painting and attempted to support his family by farming, while also continuing with the plain, utilitarian type of painting that his Quaker neighbors thought acceptable. His financial difficulties only increased, as utilitarian painting was less remunerative, and Hicks did not have the experience he needed to cultivate the land, or run a farm primarily on his own.
By 1816, his wife was expecting a fifth child. After a relative of Hicks, at the urging of Hicks' close friend John Comly, talked to him about painting again, Hicks resumed decorative painting. This friendly suggestion saved Hicks from financial disaster, and preserved his livelihood not as a Quaker Minister but as a Quaker artist. Around 1820, Hicks made the first of his many paintings of "The Peaceable Kingdom." Hicks' easel paintings were often made for family and friends, not for sale, and decorative painting remained his main source of income.
In 1827 a schism formed within the Religious Society of Friends, between Hicksites (named after Edward Hicks' cousin Elias Hicks) and Orthodox Friends. As new settlers swelled Pennsylvania's Quaker community, many branched off into sects whose differences sometimes conflicted with one another, which greatly discouraged Edward Hicks from continuing to preach. Nonetheless, in his lifetime Hicks was better known as a minister than as a painter. He is buried at Newtown Friends Meetinghouse Cemetery in Newtown Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.
An Indian Summer View of the Farm & Stock of James C. Cornell
Peaceable Kingdom
Peaceable Kingdom
View from the Tempest
Peaceable Kingdom
George Washington with His Army Crossing the Delaware
Falls of Niagara
Peaceable Kingdom
Peaceable Kingdom
Peaceable Kingdom
Peaceable Kingdom
Peaceable Kingdom
Peaceable Kingdom
Peaceable Kingdom
Peaceable Kingdom
Peaceable Kingdom
The Grave of William Penn
Grave of William Penn at Jordans in England
Penn's Treaty
The Cornell Farm
Peaceable Kingdom
Peaceable Kingdom
Washington at the Delaware
The Falls of Niagara
Peaceable Kingdom
Peaceable Kingdom
A May Morning View of the Farm and Stock of David Leedon
Religion
Quaker beliefs prohibited a lavish life or having excessive quantities of objects or materials. Unable to maintain his work as a preacher and painter at the same time, Hicks transitioned into a life of painting, and he used his canvases to convey his beliefs. He was unconfined by rules of his congregation, and able to freely express what religion could not: the human conception of faith.
Politics
Hicks opposed Britain's hierarchy.
Views
Hicks conveyed meaning through symbols, and depicted predators (such as lions) and prey (such as lambs) next to each other to show a theme of peace. Calmness and peace, rather than abrupt action, characterize Hicks' compositions. Many of the shapes and forms in his work appear to be organic, flowing and soft. One must pay close attention to the gestures of individuals and animals in his paintings to derive meaning. Hicks uses small detail variations as a way to force viewers to pay attention to content because they are deliberate and purposeful.
Quotations:
"Christendom appears clearly to me to be one of those trifling, insignificant arts, which has never been of any substantial advantage to mankind."
Membership
Dissatisfied with his life, he started to attend Quaker meetings regularly, and in 1803 he was accepted for membership in the Society of Friends.
Connections
In 1803 Edward married a Quaker woman named Sarah Worstall with whom he had four children.