Friday, April 01, 2016

Arty Farty Friday ~ Edward Hicks' Peaceable Kingdom

 Portrait of Edward Hicks by his cousin Thomas Hicks
Information, edited and extracted from:
ART REVIEW: Finding Endless Conflict Hidden in a Peaceable Kingdom
Published: June 16, 2000.
Edward Hicks was born on 4 April 1780 in Attleboro, Pennsylvania. His childhood was unsettled, his mother died in his infancy; he and siblings were boarded out by his father, then unable to support them. From age 3 Edward lived with a Quaker family. At 13 was apprenticed to a local coach-making firm. He showed a flair for ornamental painting: heraldic devices and decorative lettering. He fell into a pattern of drinking and carousing that spun out of control. Then he rediscovered religion. Around 1800 he began to attend meetings of the Religious Society of Friends - Quakers.

Hicks was devout, yet impractical. In 1811 he became an unsalaried Quaker minister and opened a carriage-and-sign painting shop. Because the ministry required frequent travel from home (he was married with children by this time), the business had to fend for itself.

The painting Hicks specialized in was censured by the Quakers. His expertly decorated signs and objects were viewed as vain, luxurious, un-Friendly things. He tried to restrict himself to a no-frills style, then sold the business to become a farmer, with calamitous economic results. His problems were compounded by his high-strung, fractious personality, given to bursts of fury and fits of sobbing. He was extremely candid in his opinions, particularly on matters related to the religious community, which didn't always endear him to others. A bitter doctrinal and psychic war within the community shaped Hicks's art. After his farming misadventure, he resumed his career as an artisan but also began to do easel paintings on the Peaceable Kingdom theme. Initially this could have been a way to give what he called his "excessive fondness for painting" an acceptable moral dimension. His crude earliest known version of the subject was adapted from a Bible print illustrating a passage from Isaiah about a millennial vision in which natural enemies are reconciled: "The wolf shall also dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them."

 One version, of many,  of The Peaceable Kingdom

Hicks continued doing other work, but the "Kingdoms" were special to him, he painted them repeatedly and obsessively, for himself, or as gifts. They become more complex in style, combining the vivacity of popular art with surprising academic finesse, they also grew more pointed in content. The first series, starting in the early 1820's, incorporated a secondary background vignette of the 17th-century Quaker William Penn arranging a treaty of peace with American Indians. After a great internal divide within the Quaker community in 1827, the images became more volatile, even propagandistic. Penn's treaty was replaced by a ghostly troop of historic Quaker elders. In the next decade, when the paintings became both deeply expressive and wildly uneven in quality, the foreground changed. Additional children and animals were included. The carnivorous beasts, lions, leopards, wolves, grow in size. Where once they had cast their eyes docilely to the ground, they stared out, alert, aggressive, challenging, appearing rabidly agitated.

Hicks meant the animals to typify human traits in line with his view of contemporary Quaker politics: the lion symbolized power gained through wealth, the leopard a suave, threatening worldliness. Occasionally animals are in conflict. But even when they aren't, the assemblies have a jumbled, restive feeling. The ground beneath them is eroding; a fissure in the earth separates them from Penn's treaty behind.

Around 1840, the mood shifted again. Hicks saw that the ideological battle he had anguished over would remain unresolved. The animals start to look aged and weary. In one painting, the lion's face bears a startling resemblance to that of Hicks in a portrait by his nephew, Thomas, where he poses with an unfinished kingdom on his easel.

He produced "Peaceable" images to the end of his life, was preparing one for his daughter when he died. But he had also turned to other subjects.

Versions via video - the first one needs to have audio at highest level.

Wikipedia page for Edward Hicks is HERE.


 Born 4 April 1780, Near Langhorne PA. chart set for 12 noon, time of birth unknown.

We're told (above) that his personality was high-strung, fractious, impractical, candid and outspoken. He obviously had an innate artistic talent, unpolished but undeniable.
Where does any of that shine through his natal chart?

Moon's exact position remains unknown without a time of birth, but would have been somewhere in Aries, as well as natal Sun. With personal planets Mercury, Venus and Mars in adjacent sign Taurus it seems likely that there'd be some internal wrangling between - the astrological Ram and Bull. Stubborn attributes of Taurus and impetuous, impatient occasionally aggressive traits of Aries tend to be tricky blends in any personality, not exactly an inner Peaceable Kingdom! Add Pluto in independent determined Aquarius in square to his natal communications planet, Mercury in Taurus, and you could have a reflection of his candid outspoken, opinions.

Saturn harmoniously trines his Sun, possibly Moon too, from Sagittarius, bringing in an extra element of rigidity to his nature.

Jupiter (expansion, excess, religion, philosophy) lay in scratchy 150 degree (quincunx) aspect to his natal Venus, planet of the arts. That could be seen as a link to his obvious need to keep painting the same subject again and again, possibly as a means to to easing an underlying psychological discomfort within himself.


mike said...

He has an interesting chart in that, at first glance, I would anticipate him being very successful in earthly pursuits, because of his emphasis on Taurus and ruler Venus in Taurus. Venus is the final dispositor for all of Hick's planets, but it lies next to the N Node, the direction in life most needed for one's success. Venus-N Node in Taurus would provide an enjoyment of art, beauty, agronomy, animal husbandry, and values-resources, so I can see how he was attracted to his pursuits. The Venus-Jupiter inconjunct, with Jupiter in Venus-ruled Libra, would have introduced a large measure of debilitating inflation to his assumptions, particularly with Uranus trine that Jupiter and semi-sextile Venus, introducing extenuating, surprising circumstances to his logic, with sudden gains and losses. Also, Uranus is sesquiquadrate Pluto: taking a path different from the collective viewpoint, usually at one's detriment, standing outside the social norm.

Hicks' Mars in Taurus may provide a clue to his repetitive art scenes. Mars in this sign is rather immovable, unpersuasive, gives stamina to stay the course. Wiki states that "he painted his beliefs", which is very Venus-Mars in Taurus, with Mars in Taurus resistance toward moving-on...he was comfortable right where he was.

mike (again) said...

BTW - Beware fools today, but I wouldn't mind some British fruit fool.

mike (again) said...

"The Late Show Wheel Of News IV (with Bernie Sanders)" (go to 5'30")

Twilight said...

mike + (again + (again) ~ :-) Thanks for your take on Hicks' astrology. I had a very strange dream last night/early morning which I'm suspecting might have had to do with my looking at various versions of his "Kingdom" paintings, especially ones with goggle eyes.... plus the Bernie bird story from a few days ago. My dream: Anyjazz and I were driving through a big empty car park which had a string of tallish posts along the middle of it. As we passed the first post a large bird was perched on it - I strained back to look again and called out "There's an eagle on that post; then as we passed other posts I saw strange birds perched on several of them, each bird stranger than the last, preening showing frilly wings and strange eyes....all very weird - then I woke up. :-) Maybe it was my April Foolish dream!

Thanks for the Colbert link - like it! We actually watched the very last segment of Colbert's show last night - the musical segment, but had been watching Jimmy Kimmel with Bill Murray prior to that, so missed Bernie.

Anyjazz passed this nice one on to me this morning -

mike (again) said...

Well, well, well...great that Sarah has joined the Bern, but sour grapes to Mitch Hall's editorial implying she's a pawn in Bernie's socialist game seeking more governmental power. Couldn't read more than the first ten comments for fear of replying to them.

Yesterday, your post was a push for Bernie to utilize Hillary's email scandal against her. My wish is that Bernie would make a connection between the Bush administration's TARP and economic stimulus programs that bailed-out the banks, financial institutions, and the automobile industry [Bernie favored the auto bailout, but voted against it, because the senate bill was packaged with unrelated negatives) as having been socialist. This occurred in 2008 from a Republican POTUS. In a capitalistic society, there is no such thing as "too big to fail" and a capitalist government does not bailout private industries. Bush's economic recovery programs was the LARGEST socialist program EVER implemented in the USA and is costing trillions of dollars, and continues to this day.

mike (again) said...

Some of the comments inferred that federal taxation under Sanders would be astronomical. Here's the latest on that:

Twilight said...

mike (again) ~ I hadn't looked at the comments under the Silverman video. Yikes! Nasty nasty! I don't know much about her - saw her a few times in the past on Bill Maher's show (we eventually got rid of HBO some months ago, so no longer see that show).
I think she's Jewish, has always been leftish, and likely feels some additional kindred spirit with Bernie.

I've heard/seen Bernie approach the TARP issue in one of the debates - one of the later ones. I remember that he did explain why he voted against it due to additional add-ons he couldn't agree with. I suppose to include that in campaign stump speeches would be getting away from current and future problems.

I've just seen a clip from a CBS morning show where Bernie was asked about his support for Hillary, should she be nominee, because she has said recently that he'd be out of the race by end of month.

This is the one

He was a tad evasive about supporting her, though I guess he would have to, in order to stop Trump, which he said would be his aim, but he avoided saying so clearly.

mike (again) said...

The video doesn't play for me, because I terminated Adobe Flashplayer a couple of months ago. Malware often rides piggy-back with Flashplayer and my computer problems were solved upon deleting Flashplayer. I read the print portion of your link.

Hillary's oil donations:
"According to the Center for Responsive Politics, of the $157.8 million the Clinton campaign has raised over all, $307,561 has come from individuals who work in the oil and gas industries. The Sanders campaign has raised more than $50,000 from individuals who work in the oil and gas industries.

Jeff Weaver, Mr. Sanders’s campaign manager, said in a statement that it was 'disappointing' that Mrs. Clinton has accused Mr. Sanders’s staff of lying on the issue of fossil fuel industry donations. 'Fifty-seven lobbyists from the industry have personally given to her campaign and 11 of those lobbyists have bundled more than $1 million to help put her in the White House,' he said.

'If you include money given to super PACs backing Clinton, the fossil fuel industry has given more than $4.5 million in support of Clinton’s bid,' Mr. Weaver said."

"Election Insurance for when you move to Canada April Fools'!"

Bob said...

I have seen pictures ofthis man's art but never looked into it.

Now just watch. Don't think. It makes your head hurt.

The Late Show Wheel Of News IV (with Bernie Sanders)

Elizabeth Warren Goes Off On 'Loser' Trump

mike (again) said...

I commented, but it must have gone to your spam file.

Twilight said...

mike (again) ~ Rescued your comment from spam....Yes, that's what Bernie explained in the video.

E-surance for moving to Canada - good one! :-)

Twilight said...

Bob ~ Thanks for the links - I think mike had passed on the Colbert one - good one!

Elizabeth Warren does a good take down - but I've gone off her. I'm disappointed she hasn't endorsed Bernie. Not impressed - not one little bit!!