Edward Hicks

Edward Hicks was a Quaker minister and self taught painter best known for The Peaceable Kingdom, which he painted about 62 times. Inspired by Isaiah, it shows lions, leopards, lambs and children sitting together in peace, often with William Penn’s treaty with the Lenape in the background.

He was born in Attleboro, Pennsylvania, in 1780 and trained as a coach painter. He earned his living painting signs and decorations, and painted pictures in his spare time. His other works include Penn’s Treaty and Noah’s Ark. He died in Newtown, Pennsylvania, in 1849. His paintings are in the National Gallery of Art, the Metropolitan Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

His animals have large, human eyes and flat, decorative shapes that give his work its gentle charm.