Peaceable Kingdom

c. 1834

Edward Hicks

Artist, American, 1780 - 1849

Three small children with pale pink skin sit and stand among a group of animals to our right as a group of eight indigenous people with light brown skin gather with eight white-skinned men near a riverbank in the distance to our left in this horizontal painting. The children and animals take up the right two-thirds of the composition. They gather on a flat-topped spit of land, which is covered in grass. All three children have blond hair and rounded features. Two sit on the ground at the bottom center of the painting. The largest animal is a caramel-brown bull, which stands next to a pale golden lion. The other animals are smaller in scale, and include a tiger, wolf, sheep, goats, cows, bears, and a jaguar, all sitting or standing at rest around the bull and lion. At the top center of the group of animals, one child stands over the lion’s back and has one arm around the tiger’s shoulders, and another child at the lower center touches the jaguar’s nose. A tree with olive-green, rust-red, and harvest-yellow leaves grows up the right edge of the canvas, in front of a tall, forest-green bush. On another spit of flat-topped, elevated grassy land to our left, six of the indigenous people stand in a row, wearing feathered headdresses. Two more kneel in front, creating a U-shape. The two in front wear loin cloths, and all eight wear gold earrings and necklaces. They face a gathering of eight men wearing tricorn hats, long coats, waistcoats, knee-length britches, and stockings in shades of gray, blue, white, brown, and orange. One of these men hold up a roll of cloth lifted out of a chest. Trees with spindly trunks and golden yellow canopies reach into the top corner of the painting along the left edge. The river extends into the distance beyond this group, with pale, sage-green hills carpeted in trees. Puffy white clouds float across a sky that deepens from pale shell pink along the horizon to light blue along the top. The features of the animals and children are painted simply and appear rather flat, giving them an almost cartoonish look.

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West Building Main Floor, Gallery 63

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Artwork overview

More About this Artwork

Article:  Ten Artworks to Understand Early United States History

From the Native peoples lobbying to keep their homelands to immigrants facing challenges in their new home, works from our collection help us understand our nation’s beginnings.

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Given by the artist in 1834 to Joseph Foulke [d. 1836], Three Tuns, Pennsylvania. Thomas Foulke, Ambler, Pennsylvania, his great-grandson. (Robert Carlen, Philadelphia); sold 1949 to Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch; bequest 1980 to NGA.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1949

  • Hicks Centennial Exhibition, Robert Carlen Gallery, Philadelphia, 1949, no cat.

1951

  • American Primitive Painting, 1750-1950, Milwaukee Art Institute, 1951, no. 99.

1954

  • American Primitive Paintings from the Collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Part I, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1954, no. 76.

1957

  • American Primitive Paintings from the Collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Part II, National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1957, not included in cat.

1959

  • Early American Paintings, Sokoliki Park, Moscow, 1959, no cat. known.

1961

  • 101 Masterpieces of American Primitive Painting from the Collection of E.W. and B.C. Garbisch, traveling exh. by the Amer. Federation of Arts, New York, 1961-1964, no. 53, color repro. First venue: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, N.Y.

1965

  • Three Centuries of American Painting, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1965, no cat.

  • Inaugural Exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts, St. Petersburg, Florida, 1965, no. 6.

1967

  • Fifty Masterpieces of American Painting from the Collection of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Society of the Four Arts, Palm Beach, Florida, 1967, no cat.

1968

  • American Naive Painting of the 18th and 19th Centuries: 111 Masterpieces from the Collection of E.W. and B.C. Garbisch, traveling exh. by Amer. Fed. of Arts, N.Y., 1968-1970, no. 49, repro. First venue: Grand Palais, Paris.

1970

  • American Naive Painting of the 18th and 19th Centuries: Masterpieces from the Collection of E.W. and B.C. Garbisch, organized by the Amer. Fed. of Arts, N.Y., and Mainichi News., Nihobashi Mitsukoshi, Tokyo, 1970, no cat.

1971

  • What is American in American Art, M. Knoedler and Co. [benefit exhibition for the Museum of American Folk Art], New York, 1971, no. 28, repro.

1978

  • The American Folk Art Tradition: Paintings from the Garbisch Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1978.

1985

  • American Naive Paintings from the National Gallery of Art, Exh. cat. Traveling exh. by the International Exhibitions Foundation, Washington, 1985-1987, no. 33, color repro. First venue: Museum of American Folk Art, New York.

1988

  • La Nascita di Una Nazione: Pittori americani dalla National Gallery of Art di Washington 1730-1880, Palazzo Pepoli Campogrande, Bologna; Galleria Internazionale d'Arte Moderna di Ca'Pesaro, Venice, 1988-1989, no. 33, repro.

1999

  • The Kingdoms of Edward Hicks, The Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Williamsburg; Philadelphia Mus. of Art; Denver Art Museum; New York State Historical Assoc., Cooperstown; The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1999-2001, no. 35, fig. 121.

2018

  • Outliers and American Vanguard Art, National Gallery of Art, Washington; High Museum of Art, Atlanta; Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2018-2019, no. 34, repro.

Bibliography

1934

  • Dresser, Louisa. "The Peaceable Kingdom." Bulletin of the Worcester Art Musuem 25 (Spring 1934): 25-30.

1950

  • Baker, Virgil. American Painting. New York, 1950: 286, 529-530.

1951

  • Bye, Arthur Edwin. "Edward Hicks." Art in America 39 (February 1951): 31-35.

  • Held, Julius. "Edward Hicks and the Tradition." The Art Quarterly 14 (Summer 1951): 123-136.

1952

  • Ford, Alice. Edward Hicks, Painter of the Peaceable Kingdom. Philadelphia, 1952.

1960

  • Ford, Alice. Edward Hicks, 1780-1849: A Special Exhibition Devoted to His Life and Work. Exh. cat. Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Williamsburg, Va., 1960: 9-13, 15, 19.

1970

  • Dasnoy, Albert. Exegese de la peinture naive. Brussels, 1970: 212, 220, 221, 225.

  • Mather, Eleanore Price. Edward Hicks, Primitive Quaker. Wallingford, Pennsylvania, 1970: 3, 16-20, 25-33.

1973

  • Mather, Eleanore Price. "A Quaker Icon: The Inner Kingdom of Edward Hicks." The Art Quarterly 36 (Spring/Summer 1973): 99.

1975

  • Derfner, Phyllis. "Edward Hicks: Practical Primitivism and the Inner Light." Art in America 63 (September/October): 76-79.

  • Mather, Eleanore Price. "Introduction." In Edward Hicks, A Gentle Spirit. Exh. cat. Andrew Crispo Gallery, New York, 1975: footnote 24.

  • Parry, Ellwood. "Edward Hicks and a Quaker Iconography." Arts Magazine 49 (June 1975): 92-94.

1983

  • Journal of the American Medical Association 250, no. 23 (December 1983): color cover.

  • Mather, Eleanore Price. Edward Hicks: His Peaceable Kingdoms and Other Paintings. Newark, Delaware, 1983: 127, no. 33.

1985

  • Ford, Alice. Edward HIcks, His Life and Art. New York, 1985: 25-30, 86-87, color repro.

1988

  • Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 88, no. 21, color repro.

1991

  • Kopper, Philip. America's National Gallery of Art: A Gift to the Nation. New York, 1991: 291, color repro.

1992

  • Chotner, Deborah, with contributions by Julie Aronson, Sarah D. Cash, and Laurie Weitzenkorn. American Naive Paintings. The Collections of the National Gallery of Art Systematic Catalogue. Washington, D.C., 1992: 184-187, color repro. 185.

  • American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 201, repro.

1997

  • Hughes, Robert. _ American Visions: The Epic History of Art in America_. New York, 1997: 2, 3, 38 color fig. 1.

Wikidata ID

Q20185795

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