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The wolf shall with the lambkin dwell in peace,
His grim carniv’rous nature then shall cease;
The leopard with the harmless kid lay down,
And not one savage beast be seen to frown;
The lion and the calf shall forward move,
A little child shall lead them on in love;
When man is moved and led by sovereign grace,
To seek that state of everlasting peace.
The Peaceable Kingdom of the Branch was painted during the mid-1820s when the Quaker church was experiencing an internal clash that ultimately resulted in the creation of two sects. In this image, a young rosy-cheeked boy in the left mid-ground leads a group of animals, both predatory and domestic, towards a rushing river. The scene is biblical in nature, but clearly takes place on American soil. The most notable signifier of location is the natural land bridge that was a popular tourist attraction for American and European travelers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This particular view is a direct quotation of an image that appeared on Henry S. Tanner’s travel map from 1822. [1] Also of note is the small vignette beneath the arch of the bridge. In this tiny scene, Hicks has depicted the famous Quaker, William Penn offering his treaty of peace to a group of Native Americans. Each of these elements works in tandem to reinforce Hicks’s message of unity and peace during a period when the Quaker church was in a state of crisis.
The complexity of Hicks’s representation complicates early interpretations of his work that characterize him as a “naive” artist who lacked basic skill. Though flattened and rudimentary, each form Hicks includes in his canvas is carefully chosen for its symbolic meaning, worked into a skillful composition, and rendered with a brilliant palette.
Notes:
[1] Carolyn J. Weekly, and Laura Pass Barry, The Kingdoms of Edward Hicks (Williamsburg, VA: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1999), 94.
ProvenanceJudge Potter, Philadelphia [1]
Leonard C. Ashton, Paris Hill ME [2]
Ferargil Galleries, New York NY [3]
To at least 1960
Frederic Newlin Price (1882-1963), New Hope PA [4]
1969
Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York NY [5]
From 1969
Barbara B. Millhouse, purchased from Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York on March 14, 1969. [6]
?
Reynolda House [7?]
Notes:
[1] Information Packet, Kennedy Galleries, 1969, copy in object file.
[2] See note 1.
[3] See note 1.
[4] See note 1. Lent work for exhibition at the New Hope Historical Society, New Hope PA in 1960.
[5] Bill of Sale, Kennedy Galleries, 1969.
[6] See note 5.
[7?]
Exhibition History1945
The New York Antiques Fair
Seventy-first Regiment Armory, New York (10/22/1945-10/26/1945)
1946
Twenty-Sixth Annual Exhibition Of Early American Works
Ferargil Galleries, New York NY (10/1946)
Cat. No. 5
As Peaceable Kingdom.
1948
American Primitives, Edward Hicks, Joseph Pickett, John Kane, And Others
Galerie St. Etienne, New York NY. (1948)
Cat. No. 5
As Peaceable Kingdom.
1951
Early American Paintings
Ferargil Galleries, New York NY (11/1951)
Cat. No. 1
As Peaceable Kingdom.
1960
An Exhibition Of Oil Paintings Of The Old New Hope Scene By Delaware Valley Artists
New Hope Historical Society, New Hope PA (6/25/1960-7/31/1960)
1971
Reynolda House American Paintings
Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., New York NY (01/13/1971-01/31/1971)
Cat. No. 7
For the benefit of the Smith College Scholarship Fund.
1975
Winston-Salem Symphony, Winston-Salem NC (4/1975)
1982
Images Of Natural Bridge
DuPont Gallery, Washington DC (1982)
Lee University, Lexington VA (1982)
1986-1987
Views And Visions: American Landscape Art Before 1830
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford CT (9/21/1986-11/30/1986)
de Young Museum, San Francisco CA (12/19/1986-3/29/1987)
Corcoran Gallery, Washington DC (4/25/1987-6/21/1987)
1990-1992
American Originals, Selections From Reynolda House Museum Of American Art
The American Federation of Arts
Center for the Fine Arts, Miami FL (9/22/1990-11/18/1990)
Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs CA (12/16/1990-2/10/1991)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (3/6/1991-5/11/1991)
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis TN (6/2/1991-7/28/1991)
Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth TX (8/17/1991-10/20/1991)
Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago (11/17/1991-1/12/1992)
The Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK (3/1/1992-4/26/1992)
1998-1999
New Worlds from Old: Australian and American Landscape Painting of the Nineteenth Century
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia (3/7/1998-5/17/1998)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (6/3/1998-8/10/1998)
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford CT (9/12/1998-12/6/1998)
Corcoran Gallery, Washington DC (1/26/1999-4/18/1999)
Cat. No. 72
2004-2005
Tales from the Easel: American Paintings from Southern Museums
The Columbus Museum, Columbus GA (2/8/2004-4/11/2004)
Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa FL (4/25/2004-7/11/2004)
Speed Art Museum (9/14/2004-12/12/2004)
El Paso Museum of Art (1/16/2005-4/10/2005)
2005
Vanguard Collecting: American Art at Reynolda House
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC (4/2005-8/2005)
2011-2012
Wonder & Enlightenment: Artist-Naturalists in the Early American South
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (8/13/2011- 2/20/2012)
2012
Mystical Visions, Divine Revelations: Religion and Spirituality in 19th Century Art
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (3/31/2012 – 11/25/2012)
2017
Samuel F.B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre and the Art of Invention
Reynolda House Museum of American Art (02/17/2017 - 06/04/2017)
2021
The Voyage of Life: Art, Allegory, and Community Response
Reynolda House Museum of American Art (7/16/2021 - 12/12/2021)
Published ReferencesMillhouse, Barbara B. and Robert Workman. American Originals. New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1990: 34-35.
Crawford, Barbara & Lyle, Royster . Artists and Artisans. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1994.
Weekly, Carolyn J. The Kingdoms of Edward Hicks. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. & The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1999.
Johns, Elizabeth, Elizabeth M. Kornhauser, Andrew Sayers, & Amy Ellis. New Worlds From Old. Canberra: National Gallery of Australia, 1998: 139.
Lassiter, Barbara B. Reynolda House American Paintings. Winston-Salem, NC: Reynolda House, Inc., 1971: 16, illus. 17.
Eldredge, Charles. Tales from the Easel: American Narrative Paintings from Southern Museums, circa 1800-1850. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2004.
Favis, Roberta Smith. Martin Johnson Heade in Florida. Gainesville FL: University Press of Florida, 2003.
Perry, Claire. The Great American Hall of Wonders. New Haven CT: Yale University Press, not published yet. Exhibition slated for July 2011.
Price, Frederic Newlin. Edward Hicks 1780-1849. Swarthmore College, 1945.
“Choice of the Past at the Armory.” Art News Volume XVIV, Number 12, October 1-14, 1945.
Held, Julius S. “Edward Hicks and The Tradition.” The Art Quarterly. Vol. XIV, No. 2 (Summer 1951): 123.
Archer, Philip R. and Martha R. Severens, "Artist-Naturalists in the Early American South" American Art Review Vol.XXIV, No.1 (2012)
Kastning, Earl H.
Kirkman, Roger N. Break Every Yoke: The North Carolina Manumission Society. Winston-Salem, NC: Telikon, Inc., 2016.
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Reynolda: Her Muses, Her Stories , with contributions by Martha R. Severens and David Park Curry (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Reynolda House Museum of American Art affiliated with Wake Forest University, 2017). pg. 22, 23, 25-28, 124, 125, 224
DepartmentAmerican Art
Peaceable Kingdom of the Branch
Artist
Edward Hicks
(1780 - 1849)
Date1826-1830
Mediumoil on canvas
DimensionsFrame: 29 x 36 1/2 in. (73.7 x 92.7 cm)
Image: 24 1/8 x 31 3/8 in. (61.3 x 79.7 cm)
Canvas: 24 3/8 x 31 5/8 in. (61.9 x 80.3 cm)
Signed<none>
Credit LineGift of Barbara B. Millhouse
CopyrightPublic domain
Object number1969.2.3
DescriptionEdward Hicks revisited the subject of the peaceable kingdom sixty-two times between 1820 and his death in 1849. However, only four known versions of this particular composition, known as The Peaceable Kingdom of the Branch, have been recorded. These canvases are characterized by the depiction of the Natural Bridge in Virginia and the presence of the “branch” or grapevine. The painted frame with lettering also distinguishes these early works. At some point, all four edges of Reynolda House’s version were trimmed, as the frame bears only four lines instead of eight. The complete passage from Isaiah 11:6 is:The wolf shall with the lambkin dwell in peace,
His grim carniv’rous nature then shall cease;
The leopard with the harmless kid lay down,
And not one savage beast be seen to frown;
The lion and the calf shall forward move,
A little child shall lead them on in love;
When man is moved and led by sovereign grace,
To seek that state of everlasting peace.
The Peaceable Kingdom of the Branch was painted during the mid-1820s when the Quaker church was experiencing an internal clash that ultimately resulted in the creation of two sects. In this image, a young rosy-cheeked boy in the left mid-ground leads a group of animals, both predatory and domestic, towards a rushing river. The scene is biblical in nature, but clearly takes place on American soil. The most notable signifier of location is the natural land bridge that was a popular tourist attraction for American and European travelers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. This particular view is a direct quotation of an image that appeared on Henry S. Tanner’s travel map from 1822. [1] Also of note is the small vignette beneath the arch of the bridge. In this tiny scene, Hicks has depicted the famous Quaker, William Penn offering his treaty of peace to a group of Native Americans. Each of these elements works in tandem to reinforce Hicks’s message of unity and peace during a period when the Quaker church was in a state of crisis.
The complexity of Hicks’s representation complicates early interpretations of his work that characterize him as a “naive” artist who lacked basic skill. Though flattened and rudimentary, each form Hicks includes in his canvas is carefully chosen for its symbolic meaning, worked into a skillful composition, and rendered with a brilliant palette.
Notes:
[1] Carolyn J. Weekly, and Laura Pass Barry, The Kingdoms of Edward Hicks (Williamsburg, VA: Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1999), 94.
ProvenanceJudge Potter, Philadelphia [1]
Leonard C. Ashton, Paris Hill ME [2]
Ferargil Galleries, New York NY [3]
To at least 1960
Frederic Newlin Price (1882-1963), New Hope PA [4]
1969
Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York NY [5]
From 1969
Barbara B. Millhouse, purchased from Kennedy Galleries, Inc., New York on March 14, 1969. [6]
?
Reynolda House [7?]
Notes:
[1] Information Packet, Kennedy Galleries, 1969, copy in object file.
[2] See note 1.
[3] See note 1.
[4] See note 1. Lent work for exhibition at the New Hope Historical Society, New Hope PA in 1960.
[5] Bill of Sale, Kennedy Galleries, 1969.
[6] See note 5.
[7?]
Exhibition History1945
The New York Antiques Fair
Seventy-first Regiment Armory, New York (10/22/1945-10/26/1945)
1946
Twenty-Sixth Annual Exhibition Of Early American Works
Ferargil Galleries, New York NY (10/1946)
Cat. No. 5
As Peaceable Kingdom.
1948
American Primitives, Edward Hicks, Joseph Pickett, John Kane, And Others
Galerie St. Etienne, New York NY. (1948)
Cat. No. 5
As Peaceable Kingdom.
1951
Early American Paintings
Ferargil Galleries, New York NY (11/1951)
Cat. No. 1
As Peaceable Kingdom.
1960
An Exhibition Of Oil Paintings Of The Old New Hope Scene By Delaware Valley Artists
New Hope Historical Society, New Hope PA (6/25/1960-7/31/1960)
1971
Reynolda House American Paintings
Hirschl and Adler Galleries, Inc., New York NY (01/13/1971-01/31/1971)
Cat. No. 7
For the benefit of the Smith College Scholarship Fund.
1975
Winston-Salem Symphony, Winston-Salem NC (4/1975)
1982
Images Of Natural Bridge
DuPont Gallery, Washington DC (1982)
Lee University, Lexington VA (1982)
1986-1987
Views And Visions: American Landscape Art Before 1830
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford CT (9/21/1986-11/30/1986)
de Young Museum, San Francisco CA (12/19/1986-3/29/1987)
Corcoran Gallery, Washington DC (4/25/1987-6/21/1987)
1990-1992
American Originals, Selections From Reynolda House Museum Of American Art
The American Federation of Arts
Center for the Fine Arts, Miami FL (9/22/1990-11/18/1990)
Palm Springs Desert Museum, Palm Springs CA (12/16/1990-2/10/1991)
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (3/6/1991-5/11/1991)
Memphis Brooks Museum of Art, Memphis TN (6/2/1991-7/28/1991)
Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth TX (8/17/1991-10/20/1991)
Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago (11/17/1991-1/12/1992)
The Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK (3/1/1992-4/26/1992)
1998-1999
New Worlds from Old: Australian and American Landscape Painting of the Nineteenth Century
National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, Australia (3/7/1998-5/17/1998)
National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia (6/3/1998-8/10/1998)
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford CT (9/12/1998-12/6/1998)
Corcoran Gallery, Washington DC (1/26/1999-4/18/1999)
Cat. No. 72
2004-2005
Tales from the Easel: American Paintings from Southern Museums
The Columbus Museum, Columbus GA (2/8/2004-4/11/2004)
Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa FL (4/25/2004-7/11/2004)
Speed Art Museum (9/14/2004-12/12/2004)
El Paso Museum of Art (1/16/2005-4/10/2005)
2005
Vanguard Collecting: American Art at Reynolda House
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem NC (4/2005-8/2005)
2011-2012
Wonder & Enlightenment: Artist-Naturalists in the Early American South
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (8/13/2011- 2/20/2012)
2012
Mystical Visions, Divine Revelations: Religion and Spirituality in 19th Century Art
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Winston-Salem, NC (3/31/2012 – 11/25/2012)
2017
Samuel F.B. Morse's Gallery of the Louvre and the Art of Invention
Reynolda House Museum of American Art (02/17/2017 - 06/04/2017)
2021
The Voyage of Life: Art, Allegory, and Community Response
Reynolda House Museum of American Art (7/16/2021 - 12/12/2021)
Published ReferencesMillhouse, Barbara B. and Robert Workman. American Originals. New York: Abbeville Press Publishers, 1990: 34-35.
Crawford, Barbara & Lyle, Royster . Artists and Artisans. Charlottesville: University Press of Virginia, 1994.
Weekly, Carolyn J. The Kingdoms of Edward Hicks. New York: Harry N. Abrams, Inc. & The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation, 1999.
Johns, Elizabeth, Elizabeth M. Kornhauser, Andrew Sayers, & Amy Ellis. New Worlds From Old. Canberra: National Gallery of Australia, 1998: 139.
Lassiter, Barbara B. Reynolda House American Paintings. Winston-Salem, NC: Reynolda House, Inc., 1971: 16, illus. 17.
Eldredge, Charles. Tales from the Easel: American Narrative Paintings from Southern Museums, circa 1800-1850. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2004.
Favis, Roberta Smith. Martin Johnson Heade in Florida. Gainesville FL: University Press of Florida, 2003.
Perry, Claire. The Great American Hall of Wonders. New Haven CT: Yale University Press, not published yet. Exhibition slated for July 2011.
Price, Frederic Newlin. Edward Hicks 1780-1849. Swarthmore College, 1945.
“Choice of the Past at the Armory.” Art News Volume XVIV, Number 12, October 1-14, 1945.
Held, Julius S. “Edward Hicks and The Tradition.” The Art Quarterly. Vol. XIV, No. 2 (Summer 1951): 123.
Archer, Philip R. and Martha R. Severens, "Artist-Naturalists in the Early American South" American Art Review Vol.XXIV, No.1 (2012)
Kastning, Earl H.
Kirkman, Roger N. Break Every Yoke: The North Carolina Manumission Society. Winston-Salem, NC: Telikon, Inc., 2016.
Reynolda House Museum of American Art, Reynolda: Her Muses, Her Stories , with contributions by Martha R. Severens and David Park Curry (Winston-Salem, N.C.: Reynolda House Museum of American Art affiliated with Wake Forest University, 2017). pg. 22, 23, 25-28, 124, 125, 224
Status
On view