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Lot Essay
Edward Hicks, one of America's most important self-taught artists was a fervent Quaker preacher and missionary. As such, making a living by painting portraits and other self-indulgent symbols was incompatible with his religious convictions. To reconcile his artistic impulse with his Quaker beliefs, he painted nearly a hundred paintings of the biblical theme Peaceable Kingdom as well as other subjects. Despite his renown as a minister, it was his paintings- done privately as an expression of his faith as well as his creative compulsions- for which he is almost exclusively known today.
This subject, Washington Crossing the Delaware is divergent from Hick's religious oeuvre but one that is iconic in American History. On December 25, 1776, Washington led troops across the Delaware River for a successful attack on British forces at Trenton, New Jersey. Although it was a small victory, it boosted the American morale and was a turning point in the Revolution. As with other historical subject rendered by Hicks, the composition is based on a print source. This picture is closely related to Washington at the Delaware an engraving by George S. Lang in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Williamsburg, Virginia after Thomas Sully Washington at the Passage of the Delaware, 1819 now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
This sign and it's companion, located in the Mercer Museum in Buck's County Pennsylvania were most likely painted in 1833 for the January 1, 1934 opening of a bridge spanning the Delaware River from Pennsylvania to New Jersey. The sign is inscribed on the bottom, Washington Crossed here Christmas- eve 1776, aided by Genls. Sullivan, Greene, lord Sterling Mercer & St. Clair. Hick's mistakenly noted the date to be Christmas Eve. This sign hung on the New Jersey side of the bridge until seven years later in 1841 when it was rescued from a flood and placed for safe keeping in the bar of Alexander Nelson's Tavern near McKonkey's Ferry.
This subject, Washington Crossing the Delaware is divergent from Hick's religious oeuvre but one that is iconic in American History. On December 25, 1776, Washington led troops across the Delaware River for a successful attack on British forces at Trenton, New Jersey. Although it was a small victory, it boosted the American morale and was a turning point in the Revolution. As with other historical subject rendered by Hicks, the composition is based on a print source. This picture is closely related to Washington at the Delaware an engraving by George S. Lang in the Abby Aldrich Rockefeller Folk Art Center, Williamsburg, Virginia after Thomas Sully Washington at the Passage of the Delaware, 1819 now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
This sign and it's companion, located in the Mercer Museum in Buck's County Pennsylvania were most likely painted in 1833 for the January 1, 1934 opening of a bridge spanning the Delaware River from Pennsylvania to New Jersey. The sign is inscribed on the bottom, Washington Crossed here Christmas- eve 1776, aided by Genls. Sullivan, Greene, lord Sterling Mercer & St. Clair. Hick's mistakenly noted the date to be Christmas Eve. This sign hung on the New Jersey side of the bridge until seven years later in 1841 when it was rescued from a flood and placed for safe keeping in the bar of Alexander Nelson's Tavern near McKonkey's Ferry.