Early American Painting

Edward Hicks (1780–1849)
A Peaceable Kingdom with Quakers Bearing Banners, c. 1829–1830
One of the best-known self-taught artists in early-nineteenth-century America, Edward Hicks was a Quaker minister who painted primarily religious and moral subjects. This work is one of more than sixty allegorical representations by Hicks of the peaceable kingdom, an Old Testament prophecy (Isaiah 11:6–9) of peace among natural enemies. A figure bearing grapes—an emblem of salvation—leads a companionable assortment of animals out of a dark wood and into a tranquil landscape. In the distance, Christ and the Twelve Apostles crown a mountain; below them, swirling banners bearing messages of peace encircle a gathering of Quakers. Hicks incorporated the Quakers to express his sympathies with a breakaway faction led by his cousin, the charismatic preacher Elias Hicks, who is pictured in profile, holding a handkerchief as a reference to his heavy perspiration during vigorous preaching. The painting both justified the secession of the so-called Hicksites and expressed the hope of amicable reconciliation among all God’s creatures.
Learn more about this painting on the Terra Foundation website. This work is also part of the interactive ArtNav platform. Click on the image above to discover more.
Early American Painting

John Lewis Krimmel (1786–1821)
Blind Man's Buff, 1814

John Singleton Copley (1738–1815)
Portrait of Mrs. John Stevens (Judith Sargent, later Mrs. John Murray), 1770–72

Rembrandt Peale (1778–1860)
George Washington, Porthole Portrait, after 1824

Edward Hicks (1780–1849)
A Peaceable Kingdom with Quakers Bearing Banners, c. 1829–1830

Ammi Phillips (1788–1865)
Girl in a Red Dress, c. 1835

Erastus Salisbury Field (1805–1900)
Portrait of a Woman said to be Clarissa Gallond Cook, in front of a Cityscape, c. 1838

Samuel F. B. Morse (1791–1872)
Gallery of the Louvre, 1831–33

Washington Allston (1779–1843)
Lorenzo and Jessica, 1832

Jonathan Adams Bartlett (1817–1902)
Portrait of Harriet, c. 1840

Thomas Sully (1783–1872)
Portrait of Blanch Sully, 1839