Collection: Edward Hicks

Edward Hicks (1780–1849) was an American folk painter and Quaker minister active in Pennsylvania. Born in Attleboro (now Langhorne), he trained as a coach and sign painter before turning to easel painting. His work features deliberate stylization, flattened perspective, and a rejection of academic anatomical or spatial rules. Hicks’s dual role as preacher and artist influenced his subject matter, which often reflected Quaker theology and Pennsylvania’s rural landscape.

Hicks is best documented for his serial reinterpretations of "The Peaceable Kingdom" (c. 1816–48), based on Isaiah 11:6–9. These works depict Quaker settlers negotiating treaties with Native Americans alongside predatory and prey animals coexisting peacefully. Figures and beasts are arranged in a linear, heraldic style, with a palette of ochres, umbers, and muted greens. Hicks also painted Pennsylvania farms, livestock, and local events, frequently including autobiographical details in his landscapes.

Hicks’s work circulated mainly within Quaker communities during his lifetime but was later recognized as foundational to American folk art. His style, once considered provincial, gained appreciation in the early 20th century from modernists seeking alternatives to academic naturalism.

The Cleveland Museum of Art holds an early version of "The Peaceable Kingdom" (c. 1816–18), while the Art Institute of Chicago preserves "Ideal Pastoral Life", a later work combining his agrarian and theological themes.