Edward Hicks the Painter

Edward Hicks (1780-1849), one of the best known American folk painters, was a lifelong resident of Bucks County, Pennsylvania, and a devoted Quaker missionary and preacher. His images of The Peaceable Kingdom, inspired by the Book of Isaiah's prophetic vision of a peaceful world in which "the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid," are among the most beloved in all of American art. For Hicks, painting portraits or other "vain" and "self-indulgent" forms -- though relatively lucrative -- was incompatible with his religious beliefs. To satisfy his creative impulses and his Quaker convictions, Hicks devoted most of his energies to painting inspirational and instructive subject