Scroll
to Top



Edward Hicks

1780-1849

NOAH'S ARK


Edward Hicks<BR> Enlarge

Edward Hicks was born in Pennsylvania in 1780. His mother died the very next year. After her death he was cared for by a slave until at the age of three he was found by Elizabeth Twining and taken in and raised in their Quaker family. His father promised to pay them a certain amount each year and he was never adopted by the Twinings. He didn't do well in school, so his parents decided he should work for a coachmaker. He enjoyed this very much and learned skills which helped him to become a painter.

He married and he and his wife Sarah had four children. At one time he became very ill, and as a result, he began to think more seriously about his life. He started attending the Quaker church.They believed in peace and brotherly love.

He was making a living as a coachmaker. He would paint signs and coaches, but he was interested in becoming a minister. He was a popular preacher. As he studied the Bible, he concentrated on the book of Isaiah. He especially liked the part in Isaiah 11 where the prophet wrote,

"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 fatling together; and a little child shall lead them."


He began painting pictures about "The Peaceable Kingdom". In fact, he painted at least 60, and some say 100 pictures with this title. In this version we see the children playing safely with the wild animals which are now tame and harmless. In the background across the chasm William Penn is negotiating a treaty with the Indians.

picture2
Peaceable Kingdom
Enlarge

Edward Hicks made a painting of William Penn's Treaty with the Indians in 1847. He based his work on an earlier painting by Benjamin West. In 1771 Thomas Penn, William Penn's son commissioned Benjamin West to record the event with the painting. Compare the two paintings. How do they differ in style? How are the paintings alike? How are they different?

picture3
Penn's Treaty With the Indians by Edward Hicks
Enlarge

picture4
The Treaty of Penn With the Indians by Benjamin West
Enlarge

Edward Hicks was a self-taught artist and painted for his own pleasure and for people in his area. He became an art teacher later in his life and lived to be 69 years old. He painted The Cornell Farm in the last year of his life. He identifies it as "An Indian summer view of the Farm and Stock of James C. Cornell of Northampton Bucks county Pennsylvania", and he also states in the inscription that he painted it in the 69th year of his life.

picture5
The Cornell Farm
Enlarge

When Edward Hicks was just a little child he went to live with the David Twining family and 60+ years later he painted the farm as he remembered it. At one time years later the painting sold for $1,432,500.

picture6
The Estate of David Twining
Enlarge

A few minutes after that sale a Peaceable Kingdom painting by Hicks sold for $4,732,500.

The story of Noah, which is the basis for our featured picture, can be found in the Bible in Genesis chapters 6-9.

This biography was written by Patsy Stevens, a retired teacher.

References:

Ford, Alice. Edward Hicks Painter of the Peaceable Kingdom. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1952

Take the online test




A frequent question:
"Who wrote this biography
and when was it written?"
Look on this Reference Citations Chart.

Activities

Online ActivitiesPrintable Activities
Take the Online Test for this Artist Print Test for this Artist
Online Jigsaw Puzzle Print Study Sheet
Online Crossword Puzzle Print Crossword Puzzle
  Print Word Search
Online Word Scramble Print Word Scramble
  Print Coloring
  Print Alphabetical
  Print Worksheet
Memory Puzzle  
Who Is The Artist  



Art Gallery Famous Paintings Volume 1

Art Gallery Famous Paintings Volume 2

Name the Painting


Research Links

Biography of Edward Hicks
National Gallery of Art

Edward Hicks
analysis of "The Peaceable Kingdom"

Different Versions of Peaceable Kingdom

Edward Hicks
lesson plan

Learning Activities for The Peaceable Kingdom
American Art - The Phillips Collection


Videos





Books
Search:
Press "Go" to search for books about Famous Artists.
Library

A LIBRARY OF
ONLINE BOOKS and BOOK PREVIEWS


Order the following books from Amazon.

Sermons delivered by Elias Hicks and Edward Hicks
1825 (full view)

Edward Hicks, Painter of the Peaceable Kingdom
by Alice Ford (selected pages)

Memoirs of the Life and Religious Labors of Edward Hicks
by Edward Hicks 1851 (full view)

The Kingdoms of Edward Hicks
by Carolyn J. Weekley and Laura Pass Barry (Review, no preview)

Credits and Solutions

Puzzles on these pages courtesy of
Songs of Praise and Armored Penguin

Graphic, "Noah's Ark" by Edward Hicks, 1780-1849,
courtesy of CGFA Virtual Art Museum

Pictures courtesy of Wikimedia Commons

Page Comments
Please leave a comment for this page.

View all Comments

This page displayed 105,910 times.

This is a mobile page of Garden of Praise. You are using a desktop computer. Try viewing the mobile pages on your smart phone.