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Edward Hicks (1780-1849) was a Folk art|folk  and
Naive art|naive (primitive) artist and devout
Quaker (member of the Religious Society of
Friends).  

==Life and work==
Probably his best-known works are the various
versions of the painting Peaceable Kingdom.  These
paintings depict the verses from Book of
Isaiah|Isaiah, chapter 11, that begin "The wolf
also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard
shall lie down with the kid, the calf, and the
young lion, and the fatling together, and a little
child shall lead them. . . ."   Many of these
paintings also depict, in the background, the
legendary treaty between William Penn and the
Lenape at the foundation of Pennsylvania.

Hicks's mother died when he was an infant, and the
family who raised him were Quakers.  Hicks
embraced the religion himself and became a
traveling minister (Quakers do not have paid
clergy, but they do recognize particular people as
gifted in ministry—people like Edward Hicks
and his cousin Elias Hicks).

Hicks began his career as an apprentice to a
coach-builder.  He learned to paint decorations on
the coaches.  Later he started his own business,
decorating furniture and other objects.

Hicks's Quaker faith sometimes conflicted with his
career as an artist.  In fact he was criticized
for engaging in "worldly activity."  For a time,
he gave up painting.  Then he found a way of
combining his faith and his work by producing
paintings that depicted various aspects of Quaker
belief.  The Peaceable Kingdom, for example,
reflects the Friends' Peace Testimony.  He painted
at least 60 versions of this subject.

Hicks's other subjects were historical events that
occurred in Pennsylvania, farm life, and Bible
stories.

Hicks was a member of Newtown Monthly Meeting
(monthly meetings are the local Quaker
congregations), and is buried in the graveyard
there.  His home in Newtown, Bucks County,
Pennsylvania|Newtown, PA is adjacent to the
meeting's property, and is a national historic
landmark.


==Selected works and where to view them==

*The Peaceable Kingdom, ca. 1833, Worcester Art
Museum in Worcester, Massachusetts
*The Falls of Niagara, ca. 1825, and The Peaceable
Kingdom, ca. 1830-1832, Metropolitan Museum of Art
in New York City
*Penn's Treaty With the Indians, ca. 1830-1840,
Museum of Fine Arts in Houston, Texas
*Noah's Ark, 1846 and The Peaceable Kingdom, ca.
1844-1846, the Philadelphia Museum of Art,
Philadelphia, PA|Philadelphia
*Grave of William Penn, 1847, Newark Art Museum in
Newark, New Jersey
*The Cornell Farm, 1848; The Grave of William
Penn, ca. 1847-1848; The Landing of Columbus, ca.
1837; The Peaceable Kingdom, ca. 1834; Penn's
Treaty With the Indians, ca. 1840-1844; and
Portrait of a Child, ca. 1840, at the National
Gallery of Art in Washington, D. C.


==External Links==

http://www.worcesterart.org/Collection/American/19
34.65.html
http://www.philamuseum.org/collections/american_ar
t/1950-92-7.shtml
http://www.newarkmuseum.org/americanart/html/tour/
galleries/country_portraits.htm
http://www.nga.gov/cgi-bin/psearch?Request=S&image
set=1&Person=14800