Landscape on Panel for Pole Screen

Dateca. 1830

Attributed to Edward Hicks (1780-1849)

OriginAmerica, Pennsylvania, Bucks County

MediumOil on panel (est. by eye as tulip poplar) with brass hardware in a mahogany frame

DimensionsFramed: 20 x 23 3/16in.

Credit LineMuseum Purchase

Object number1986.2000.1,1

DescriptionEn toto, the object consists of a panel painting of a landscape scene, the panel functioning as a firescreen when mounted on its turned, tripod-based pole. The panel attaches to the pole via two brass rings affixed to its back. The scene is bucolic in nature, showing a group of sheep in the right front foreground; behind them stands a thatched-roof cottage, a woman seated in its open doorway and a man standing beside and turned towards her, leaning on a staff. Trees and other vegetation frame the cottage. The left half of the composition consists of part of a field on a bluff overlooking a distant valley, with mountains in the distance. A blasted tree stands at far left, on the bluff and not far from the cottage. A dirt track leads from the lower left corner up to the door of the cottage.

The mahogany frame is original to the panel; it has not been determined whether the pole and panel were originally used together, but they are contemporaneous with one another.

Label TextAccording to his account book, Edward Hicks painted furniture (and other household items), but this decorated polescreen is the only specific piece linked to his hand to date. Probably an (as yet unidentified) Bucks County cabinetmaker fabricated the pole and blank panel, whereas Hicks decorated the latter. The scene may derive from a print source, but in style and motifs, it also relates to other Hicks landscapes and to landscape elements within his peaceable kingdoms.
ProvenanceEarly ownership remains undocumented. It was acquired at an unidentified auction in Rhode Island by Elmino Scottie, who sold it to CW's source, dealer Tom Renn, Boston, Mass.