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American Art

Noah's Ark

1846

Edward Hicks, American, 1780 - 1849

Oil on canvas
26 5/16 x 30 3/8 inches (66.8 x 77.1 cm)

* Gallery 115, American Art, first floor (Johnson Gallery)

1950-92-7

Bequest of Lisa Norris Elkins, 1950

Label

Hicks used Nathaniel Currier's 1844 lithograph as the source for this painting, which places the biblical event in an expansive landscape. He added a few elements of his own, including a lion that resembles those in his Peaceable Kingdoms. The poses of the large white horse, the cows to the right, and the sheep at center bottom are also similar to those in Hicks's other paintings.

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Additional information:

  • PublicationPhiladelphia Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections

    For Edward Hicks, a zealous Quaker preacher and missionary, making a living by painting portraits or other symbols of self-indulgence was incompatible with his religious beliefs. Yet his greatest talent was as an artist, so to satisfy both his image-making impulse and his Quaker convictions, he made nearly a hundred paintings on the biblical theme of the Peaceable Kingdom, to which Noah's Ark, although a unique subject among his work, is clearly related. Hicks based the general composition of the scene on Nathaniel Currier's popular lithograph issued in 1844, but gave the pairs of animals a beauty and dignity lacking in the print. As a result, the calm procession of beasts has a stately rhythm that embodies the gravity of God's command that they enter to ark to escape the approaching flood. The grayish green horizon with looming black clouds above intensifies the drama of the impending cataclysm, and the dignified old lion staring directly at the viewer focuses attention upon this lesson of God's power to destroy and redeem. Darrel Sewell, from Philadelphia Museum of Art: Handbook of the Collections (1995), p. 281.

* Works in the collection are moved off view for many different reasons. Although gallery locations on the website are updated regularly, there is no guarantee that this object will be on display on the day of your visit.

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