Abstract

The special concern with organized natural history which distinguished the Philadelphia community following the War of 1812 can be found in surprising places. The natural environment of the new nation thoroughly Americanized a biblical subject in the paintings of Edward Hicks (1780-1849), a devoted Quaker who lived in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Although little is known about his artistic methods, his compositions of the "Peaceable Kingdom" are probably the most famous examples of 19th-century folk art in this country.Hicks' pictorial idiom is so idiosyncratic that it has tended to defy placement within the American developments within art history of his time. However, the geological theories of the period help to clarify some of Hicks' oddly organized compositions, particularly those which introduce the Falls of Niagara, the Natural Bridge of Virginia or the Delaware Water Gap and give a rationale to Hicks' wooden style of painting typical of American folk artists.

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