The Peaceable Kingdom: Edward Hicks As an American folk painter born in Langhorne, Pennsylvania in 1780, Edward Hicks was an active Quaker who had devoted much of his time using his paintings for religious purposes and the advancement of religion. Some of his work include The Residence of David Twining (1846), The Cornell Farm (1848), Washington at the Delaware (1849), Noah’s Ark (1846), and Penn’s Treaty with the Indians (1847). He is best known for the painting The Peaceable Kingdom (1834) and had been inspired by William Penn’s tract The Holy Experiment and the theme of its message. The painting illustrated the Bible verse from Isaiah 11:6-9 “the wolf also shall dwell with the lamb”, etc. Hicks had painted more than sixty different versions
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Subsequently, his work was seen at the Newark Museum in 1930, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1926, and in the Museum of Modern Art in 1932. Since then, many museums have acquired Hicks’ work and consider his work to currently be the masterpieces of folk art. Folk art is an expression that came out of a craftsmanship tradition. The tradition of craftsmanship came out of the technical abilities of folk art painters. Nonetheless, this was especially true during the age of the shop-trained men of the nineteenth-century rather than by the training of art schools and its traditional teachings of …show more content…
The influence of English landscape is seen through his use of vibrant colors and light. A child leads the beasts, which appear cuddly and toy-like on the right side of the painting. On the left side of the painting, you see William Penn and other Quakers meet with the Leni-Lenape Indian tribe to make a peace treaty. This theme is frequently seen in many of Hicks’s Peaceable Kingdom series of paintings. One of his most defining features within all of his earliest paintings in the series is the borders that were designed around the paintings. Within these borders, he would reference the Isaiah prophecies. If there are any weaknesses in the paintings, it would be his depiction of the beasts in the painting, which look a little too doll-like and stiff. However, it also makes the painting more interesting and more on the terms of being a bit mythological and
Subsequently, his work was seen at the Newark Museum in 1930, the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in 1926, and in the Museum of Modern Art in 1932. Since then, many museums have acquired Hicks’ work and consider his work to currently be the masterpieces of folk art. Folk art is an expression that came out of a craftsmanship tradition. The tradition of craftsmanship came out of the technical abilities of folk art painters. Nonetheless, this was especially true during the age of the shop-trained men of the nineteenth-century rather than by the training of art schools and its traditional teachings of …show more content…
The influence of English landscape is seen through his use of vibrant colors and light. A child leads the beasts, which appear cuddly and toy-like on the right side of the painting. On the left side of the painting, you see William Penn and other Quakers meet with the Leni-Lenape Indian tribe to make a peace treaty. This theme is frequently seen in many of Hicks’s Peaceable Kingdom series of paintings. One of his most defining features within all of his earliest paintings in the series is the borders that were designed around the paintings. Within these borders, he would reference the Isaiah prophecies. If there are any weaknesses in the paintings, it would be his depiction of the beasts in the painting, which look a little too doll-like and stiff. However, it also makes the painting more interesting and more on the terms of being a bit mythological and