集中收藏: The Boy’s Face in Edward Hicks’s “A Peaceable Kingdom with Quakers Bearing…”

As a Quaker minister, Edward Hicks used his “Peaceable Kingdom” series to visually convey Quaker beliefs, as well as a message of peace and harmony during a difficult time in 19th-century Quaker history, when believers became divided over how to observe their faith.

Hicks chose to interpret the biblical passage Isaiah 11:6-9, which refers to a child at the front of a mixed group of animals, all coexisting peacefully. But the boy here looks distinctly adult, an effort by Hicks to make the scene relatable to his audience.

Sarah Monks, Lecturer of Art History at the University of East Anglia, explains why this figure is so important in Hicks’s “Peaceable Kingdom” paintings.