The nature of Edward Hicks's painting - Cover Story

Magazine Antiques, Feb, 1999 by Scott W. Nolley, Carolyn J. Weekley

The use of this transfer technique is not found in the other pictures by Hicks examined here. One of the more complex of the paintings with graphite underdrawing is Leedom Farm (Pl. XIII), in which Hicks used the drawing as an organizational device. He first laid out the vista as he knew it from life. Then he organized the animals, the farmland, and the buildings to his own and his patron's satisfaction. He made a number of changes in the underdrawing, now visible as the paint has become transparent with age, These refinements prove that the artist took particular care with the composition, linear perspective, and other details of his paintings. One small graphite sketch on paper by Hicks also survives (Pl. XI), adding further evidence that he may have executed preliminary drawings for some of his oil paintings.

A comparison of the paintings of Leedom Farm, Watson's Peaceable Kingdom, and Cornell's bull provides not only insights into Hicks's painting methods, but also into his approach to his pictures as influenced by his religion. The painting of the bull is actually a portrait in the English and northern European tradition of animal portraits. It is a sophisticated painting, highly representational and imitating the academic manner. In the Peaceable Kingdom pictures the animals symbolize human traits but are not rendered as portraits of individual animals. In the Leedom Farm painting the many animals are arranged tightly across the foreground and represent a generalized view of the farm's stock.

That Hicks could paint sophisticated pictures, but chose not to, can be attributed to the constraints of his religion and the way many Quakers viewed his art. He would not have made a controversial situation worse by continually painting fine arts pictures. John Comly, a Quaker and close friend of the artist, wrote to Isaac Hicks, a distant relative, in 1817:

[Edward Hicks] felt convictions in his mind on the subject of ornamental painting - These scruples he sometimes attended to - but not so fully as he believed he ought to have done, tho for some years past, he declined to indulge what is called a native genius for such paintings, - a genius, and taste for imitation, which if the Divine law had not prohibited, might have rivalled Peale or West - but... he clearly saw the contradiction and inconsistency of such a calling.(8)

In his own time, Hicks's art was not widely known outside his family and circle of friends. Even for many years after his death he was noted for his ministry in the Society of Friends, not his paintings. It is probable that his imitation of academic style as blended with ornamental painting techniques was not uncommon among American artists with similar training and experience, although this has rarely been documented. In the case of Hicks there is abundant documentation in the form of his account book, published memoir, a large body of family papers, and some of the tools he used. Unique in early American painting, the Peaceable Kingdom series and related genre pictures provide a rare glimpse into an artist exploring and refining his art over the entire course of his career.