Edward Hicks’s The Peaceable Kingdom presents an ideal world of peace and harmony. The artist combines the biblical image of a child surrounded by animals with a scene of William Penn’s treaty with the Indians. The scene in the right foreground was inspired by a verse in the biblical book of Isaiah, “The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them.” Here the animals named in biblical verse gather around a young child dressed in white with a red sash, and holding an olive branch, a symbol of peace.
At the left in the middle ground are William Penn and his men, in their distinctive Quaker dress, meeting the Indians. In 1681, King Charles II of England gave the area now called Pennsylvania, or Penn’s woods, to William Penn’s father in payment for a debt. William Penn, a Quaker who had been persecuted because of his religion, wanted to establish freedom of religion and the right to self-government in Pennsylvania. He also made a treaty with the Indians and paid them for their land. He was so honest and fair with the Indians that they never attacked Penn’s colony.
In the distance of the painting is the ship that brought Penn and his Quaker followers to the New World. Hicks’s words interpreting the scene are painted in the borders. In the corners are words and emblems for virtues including liberty, innocence, and meekness.
The full faces and expressive eyes of the children and animals in the work demonstrate Hicks’s early ability as a portrait artist. His background as a sign painter is evident in the detailed lettering that surrounds the painting. The artist creates a sense of depth by making the objects in the distance smaller and less detailed. The diagonal lines of the path and of the river also serve to lead the eye to the horizon. While some elements in the painting are carefully observed from nature, the animals are rather fanciful. The cool colors create a somber mood.
Edward Hicks began his career as a sign- and coach-painter. He also painted expert lettering on leather buckets for the volunteer fire department. From these beginnings, Hicks began painting farm scenes and landscapes, and he soon embarked on his most famous works, The Peaceable Kingdom, of which he may have painted more than one hundred versions. Hicks himself was a Quaker, and he intended these paintings to be a visual message of harmony, exemplifying the Quaker vision of a peaceful society. For many years, Hicks devoted himself to preaching, and his joy and pleasure in painting caused him much inner turmoil because he felt it conflicted with his religious beliefs.
