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1967.100.3, Painting
Portrait of Edward Hicks (1780-1849)
1967.100.3, Painting

Portrait of Edward Hicks (1780-1849)

Date1838-1841
Artist Thomas Hicks (1823-1890)
OriginAmerica, Pennsylvania, Bucks County, Newtown
MediumOil on canvas
DimensionsUnframed: 27 1/4 x 22 1/8in. (69.2 x 56.2cm) and Framed: 32 1/2 x 27 1/2 x 3 1/8in.
Credit LineMuseum Purchase
Object number1967.100.3
DescriptionA half-length portrait of a seated, older man turned a quarter towards the viewer's left, his head turned facing the viewer. He poses before an easel, and one side of an unfinished painting is shown on it. He holds a paint-daubed palette in his proper left hand, a brush in the other, with that forearm resting on the arm of the chair. An open book is shown beyond the easel-supported painting. He poses gainst a brownish background and sits in a green-painted Windsor chair. The paint on the tip of the brush is red. He wears a black coat, an olive-colored waistcoat and matching trousers, and a white neckcloth. His hair is brown, the hairline receding. His spectacles are pushed up on his forehead.

The 3-inch gilded and molded frame is a replacement that may date from the mid-nineteenth century but has been extensively adapted to accommodate the present picture.
Label TextThomas Hicks's portrait of his cousin captures the older artist in a familiar pose, the composition showing him interrupted in the process of creating a version of his favorite subject, the Peaceable Kingdom as interpreted from the Biblical passage of Isaiah 11:6-9. The painter holds a loaded brush in one hand, a carefully prepared palette in the other, and he gazes up as though momentarily distracted by the viewer.

As early as 1836, Thomas worked in Edward's Newtown shop, probably as an apprentice. The younger man executed a number of portraits during this time; fifty-three were recorded in the daybook of Isaac Worstall Hicks, Edward's son. In 1839, Thomas left the shop to study art in Philadelphia, ultimately becoming a well-respected and skilled portraitist and landscape painter.





Provenance[From the subject? Or from the artist?] to the subject's only son, Isaac Worstall Hicks (1809-1898); to his oldest son, Edward Penrose Hicks (1859-1934), Newtown, Pa.; to his daughter, Mrs. William E. Richardson (Mary Barnsley Hicks)(b. 1904) of Tyler, Tex., who was AARFAM's source.