Images(2)

Pastoral Landscape

Date1845-1849

Attributed to Edward Hicks (1780-1849)

OriginAmerica, Pennsylvania, Bucks County

MediumOil on yellow poplar (tulip wood) panel

DimensionsUnframed: 16 11/16 x 20in. (42.4 x 50.8cm) and Framed: 19 7/8 x 23 1/4 x 1 1/4in.

Credit LineFrom the collection of Abby Aldrich Rockefeller; gift of John D. Rockefeller, Jr.

Object number1956.102.6

DescriptionA landscape scene featuring a group of two sheep and two cattle at right front. The animals (two standing, two prone) are gathered beneath a blasted tree on the edge of a bank, a stream shown meandering to the left of them. In the middle distance, a shepherd and brown dog herd several sheep out of the picture towards the left, the man moving through a ravine between two fields or pastures. There appear to be low mountains in the distance.

The 1 7/8-inch splayed walnut frame is probably original.
Label TextThis serene view featuring farm animals and a shepherd with his flock in the left distance was painted for Charles Leedom -- the son of Edward Hicks's favorite foster sister, Mary Twining Leedom and her husband, Jesse Leedom. The picture is one of a small number of pastoral scenes that seem to have no immediate reference to religious themes, specific places, or historic events, although it has many of the elements that appear in Hicks's Peaceable Kingdoms and farmscapes. The gnarled and blasted tree at right appears in a few other works but is given greater prominence here.

ProvenanceCharles Leedom, Newtown, Pa.; to his granddaughter, Mrs. Lydia L. Knight, Newtown, Pa.; to dealer Carl Lindborg, Newtown Square, Pa.; to dealer Edith Gregor Halpert, Downtown Gallery, New York, NY; purchased from Halpert January 20, 1933, by Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., New York, NY; given to Colonial Williamsburg May 19, 1939; loaned by Colonial Williamsburg back to Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., for use at Bassett Hall, the Rockefellers' Williamsburg home; purchased back from Colonial Williamsburg by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., for continued use at Bassett Hall on November 25, 1948; given to Colonial Williamsburg in 1956 by John D. Rockefeller, Jr., on May 1, 1956. ‚