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Lot Essay
Found in a Bible dated 1835 and belonged to a member of the Plymouth Meeting, the drawing illustrated here employs artistic conventions and a compositional style strikingly similar to and most likely done by Edward Hicks. These include, the heavy, semi-circular eye-lids set with prominent upright whiskers and triangulated nose of the lion, and dark-filled eyes and conjoined double-S shape of the Ox's nostrils. In addition, each animal's stance, the lion with its S-shaped tail curving in between its legs and splayed upright toes, executed almost as if the animal were walking on the sides of its feet, and Ox chewing long grasses in its mouth. In this drawing, however, no part of the lion's mane issues from its ears.
While in many of Hicks's Peaceable Kingdom series, the lion sits near the Ox, several completed oil versions incorporate a similar positioning of animals to that seen here. These include examples at the Mercer Museum of the Bucks County Historical Society, the Carnegie Museum of Art and a third in a private collection (see Weekley, The Kingdoms of Edward Hicks (Williamsburg, 1999), p. 134, fig. 124; p. 142, fig. 135; p. 143, fig. 136.)
While in many of Hicks's Peaceable Kingdom series, the lion sits near the Ox, several completed oil versions incorporate a similar positioning of animals to that seen here. These include examples at the Mercer Museum of the Bucks County Historical Society, the Carnegie Museum of Art and a third in a private collection (see Weekley, The Kingdoms of Edward Hicks (Williamsburg, 1999), p. 134, fig. 124; p. 142, fig. 135; p. 143, fig. 136.)