20 Facts About Edward Hicks

Edward Hicks became a notable Quaker because of his paintings.

Edward Hicks was born in his grandfather's mansion at Attleboro, in Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Edward Hicks taught him the Quaker beliefs, which had a great effect on the rest of his life.

At the age of thirteen Edward Hicks began an apprenticeship to coach makers William and Henry Tomlinson.

Edward Hicks stayed with them for seven years, during which he learned the craft of coach painting.

Edward Hicks's painting trade was lucrative, but it upset some in the Quaker community, because it contradicted the plain customs they respected.

In 1815 Edward Hicks briefly gave up ornamental painting and attempted to support his family by farming, while continuing with the plain, utilitarian type of painting that his Quaker neighbors thought acceptable.

Around 1820, Edward Hicks made the first of his many paintings of The Peaceable Kingdom.

Nonetheless, in his lifetime Edward Hicks was better known as a minister than as a painter.

Edward Hicks is buried at Newtown Friends Meetinghouse Cemetery in Newtown Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania.

Unable to maintain his work as a preacher and painter at the same time, Edward Hicks transitioned into a life of painting, and he used his canvases to convey his beliefs.

Edward Hicks was unconfined by rules of his congregation, and able to freely express what religion could not: the human conception of faith.

Edward Hicks used his paintings as a way to define his central interest, which was the quest for a redeemed soul.

Edward Hicks' work was influenced by a specific Quaker belief referred to as the 'Inner Light'.

Edward Hicks depicted humans and animals to represent the Inner Light's idea of breaking physical barriers to working and living together in peace.

Edward Hicks admired Penn as an opponent of British power in America, and he hoped that Penn could help ensure reform.

Edward Hicks most esteemed Penn for establishing the treaty of Pennsylvania with the Native Americans, because it was a state that strongly fostered the Quaker community.

Edward Hicks used Penn and the Native Americans to paraphrase Isaiah's prophecy, in full.

Edward Hicks conveyed meaning through symbols, and depicted predators and prey next to each other to show a theme of peace.

Edward Hicks uses small detail variations as a way to force viewers to pay attention to content because they are deliberate and purposeful.