The Signers Edward Hicks
Portrait of Edward Hicks
Thomas Hicks
Pennsylvania
1838-1841
Edward Hicks
(1780-1849)
A devoted Quaker missionary and one of America's best-known folk painters, Edward Hicks was self-taught. He was born in Langhorne, Pennsylvania and orphaned during the Revolutionary War, was raised by the Twining family. He apprenticed to a carriage maker and decorated coaches, tavern signs, tables, chairs and furniture. He joined the Society of Friends, which helped his recovery from alcoholism, and became a preacher. Hicks expressed his faith in his artwork, but also painted historical scenes. He executed three paintings of the Declaration of Independence based on an engraving after the well-known painting by John Trumbull.