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1957.101.7, Genre
Declaration of Independence
1957.101.7, Genre

Declaration of Independence

Date1840-1845
Attributed to Edward Hicks (1780-1849)
OriginAmerica, Pennsylvania, Bucks County
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 24 x 31 3/16in. (61 x 79.2cm) and Framed: 28 5/8 x 35 11/16 x 1 3/4in.
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number1957.101.7
DescriptionThe interior of a room packed with men who are lined, in some places, three deep, along three sides of the space, with a smaller group shown standing around a draped table at right front, behind which sits a man in an armchair. Two doors at the far end of the room are closed. Windows on the two side walls are draped with curtains hung from cornice boards. At the far end of the room, a large spread eagle appears over the triglyphs and metopes that form the cornice. Wording is lettered on a banner in the eagle's beak, with additional wording on the wall below it. At far left, a man sits at a draped table, writing. The floor boards are bare.

The 2 5/8-inch, mahogany-veneered, cove-molded frame with corner blocks is possibly original.

Label TextEdward Hicks presented this picture to his son, Isaac Worstall Hicks, and it remained in the family for two more generations. It is one of several versions of the scene painted by Hicks, all of them deriving from John Trumbull's Declaration of Independence commissioned in 1817 and completed in 1824. A print after Trumbull's picture was published in 1829 and probably served as Hicks's direct source. He owned a copy of Charles Goodrich's _Lives of the Signers of the Declaration of Independence_, which included an imprint of the engraving.

Hicks gave most of the signers similar stylized faces that bear no relationship to Trumbull's faithful likenesses or those recorded by the engraver of the print. He did attempt to individualize the prominent members of the drafting committee, who stand in front of the table to right of center. Both Benjamin Franklin, at extreme right, and Thomas Jefferson, who stands next to Franklin, are recognizable, as is John Adams, who stands at the left in the group.

InscribedIn black paint on the banner held by the eagle is "E PLURIBUS UNUM. IN UNITY, THERE IS STRENGTH"; in black paint below this is "THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE JUY, 4 1776." ["July" lacks an "L" and its "Y" is superscript with a comma beneath it.]
ProvenanceFrom the artist to his son, Isaac Worstall Hicks, Newtown, Pa.; to his son, Edward Hicks; to his daughter, Mary Barnsley Hicks Richardson, Sweet Briar, Va.; Captain Richard A. Loeb, Hampton, NJ; Mr. and Mrs. Howard Lipman, Wilton, Conn.; Mary Allis, Southport, Conn.; M. Knoedler and Co., Inc., New York, NY.