Edward Hicks

Edward Hicks (1780–1849) was an American folk painter and Quaker minister, born at Attleboro, now Langhorne, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. After his mother died he was raised by her friend Elizabeth Twining, who taught him Quaker beliefs. At thirteen he was apprenticed to coach makers and learned coach painting, and for most of his life decorative work on signs, household objects and farm equipment was his main income. He joined the Society of Friends in 1803 and was recorded as a minister in 1812, and in his lifetime he was better known as a preacher than as a painter. His easel pictures were often made for family and friends rather than for sale, and he used them to express his faith. He painted sixty-two versions of The Peaceable Kingdom, drawn from Isaiah's prophecy of predators and prey at peace, many of them with William Penn's treaty with the Native Americans in the background. He died in 1849 and is buried at Newtown. Here: Noah's Ark, from the last years of his life.