Provenance
Painted for the family of William Janney, Newtown, Pennsylvania; taken south by Mary Janney after her marriage. Given by a member of the Goose Creek Meeting, Loudon County, Virginia, to a family in Silver Spring, Maryland.[1] (Robert Carlen, Philadelphia); sold to (Edith Gregor Halpert, Downtown Gallery, New York); sold 1945 to (M. Knoedler and Co., New York); sold 1945 to Joseph Katz, New York; sold 1947 to (M. Knoedler and Co., New York); sold 1947 to Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch, Pokety Farms, Cambridge, Maryland; bequest 1980 to NGA.
[1] Alice Ford, _Edward Hicks, His Life and Art_ (New York, 1985), 136, states that the painting was discovered in Purcelville, Virginia, though this may refer to Goose Creek Meeting [a Quaker sect], as both are in Loudon County. (A letter from Ford of 18 January 1988, in NGA curatorial files, states that this information was provided to her by Mrs. Garbisch.) The references to Mary Janney taking the painting "south" after her marriage, cited in Eleanore Price Mather, _Edward Hicks: His Peaceable Kingdoms and Other Paintings_, Newark, Delaware, 1983: 205, no. 116, probably refers to Loudon County. Attempts to confirm this, as well as to determine when this journey occurred and how Mary was related to William Janney, have been unsuccessful.
Accession Number
1980.62.13
Medium
oil on canvas
Dimensions
overall: 45 x 60 cm (17 11/16 x 23 5/8 in.)
Classification
Painting
Credit Line
Gift of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch
Tags
Painting Neoclassical & Romantic (1751–1850) Oil Painting Canvas American
Background & Context
Background Story
The Landing of Columbus from c. 1837 is an unusual subject for a Quaker minister, depicting the European discovery of the Americas in a composition that combines the narrative directness of folk painting with the symbolic structure of Hicks's more familiar Peaceable Kingdom compositions. The landing of Columbus is presented as a historical parallel to the Peaceable Kingdom—the discovery of a new world where, in Hicks's Quaker vision, the peaceable kingdom might actually be realized. The painting's relatively simple composition and limited palette are characteristic of Hicks's work during the 1830s, when his paintings were still more direct and less elaborate than the late versions.
Cultural Impact
The Landing of Columbus is one of the most intriguing works in Hicks's oeuvre because it connects the Quaker vision of the Peaceable Kingdom to the American narrative of discovery and settlement. Columbus's landing is presented not as an act of conquest but as the discovery of a new world where the peaceable kingdom might be realized—a specifically Quaker interpretation of the Columbus story that emphasizes the peaceful potential of the New World rather than the violence of its colonization.
Why It Matters
The Landing of Columbus is Hicks reimagining American history through Quaker eyes: not conquest but discovery, not colonization but the possibility of a Peaceable Kingdom in the New World. The painting connects biblical prophecy to American history in a way that only a Quaker minister could—making Columbus's landing into a potential fulfillment of Isaiah's vision.
