Edward Hicks (American, d. 1849) The Peaceable Kingdom, ca. 1835-44
oil on canvas, 30 x 36 in.
Collection Everson Museum of Art. Museum purchase with contributions from the community and friends of Syracuse and Onondaga County, PC 78.19
Edward Hicks's The Peaceable Kingdom is one of the museum's perennially favorite paintings. Edward Hicks is regarded as one of America's most beloved folk artists and his Peaceable Kingdoms are icons of American folk art. During his lifetime, however, Hicks's fame was as a Quakers leader, often engaged in a contentious dispute between factions within the Society of Friends. He was also known as a commercial ornamental painter, specializing in signboards, carriage and wagon painting, house painting and the decoration of household objects.
His easel paintings, of which the Peaceable Kingdoms form a major part, were mainly composed as presentation pieces for friends and family and were illustrative of important beliefs and ideas that Hicks shared with the recipients. There are 62 known Peaceable Kingdoms extant today. Each of them was inspired by the biblical passage Isaiah 11:6-9, which reads in part, "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 together; and a little child shall lead them." Hicks viewed Isaiah's prophesy as a central and concise statement of key Quaker beliefs.
The works are characterized by Hicks's use of pure colors, a simplified rendering of figurative elements, and the depiction of a charming menagerie based on Isaiah's prophecy. For Hicks, each animal represents and acts out moral and religious beliefs as well as traits of human nature. In the background of the Edenic landscape, the 17th century Quaker William Penn is shown negotiating a treaty of peace with American Indians. Throughout his years of painting this subject, from 1816 until his death in 1849, Hicks continually refined and changed the artistic and metaphorical elements of the composition to reflect the fractious politics of American Quakers.
