Edward Hicks Painting the Peaceable Kingdom

Edward Hicks was a Quaker minister who supple-mented his income through sign and coach painting. In middle age, he began making more ambitious pictures, expressing his sense of patriotism through depictions of significant events in American history and his spiritual beliefs through imaginative scenes of paradise on earth. Here, his cousin Thomas Hicks portrays him at work on one of the hundred or
so versions of “The Peaceable Kingdom” that he painted between 1820 and the night before his death in 1849. The pacifist theme is inspired by the prophecy in the Old Testament’s book of Isaiah: “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the so versions of “The Peaceable Kingdom” that he painted between 1820 and the night before his death in 1849. The pacifist theme is inspired by the prophecy in the Old Testament’s book of Isaiah: “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the Edward Hicks was a Quaker minister who supple-mented his income through sign and coach painting. In middle age, he began making more ambitious pictures, expressing his sense of patriotism through depictions of significant events in American history and his spiritual beliefs through imaginative scenes of paradise on earth. Here, his cousin Thomas Hicks portrays him at work on one of the hundred or
so versions of “The Peaceable Kingdom” that he painted between 1820 and the night before his death in 1849. The pacifist theme is inspired by the prophecy in the Old Testament’s book of Isaiah: “The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid.”

A self-taught artist, Hicks sold, bartered, or gave away his paintings to neighbors in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. His works were little known until the 1930s; they have since become recognizable icons featured in major museums.