Thomas Hicks American (1823-1890)

SOLD

Pine Tree and Rocks, Lake George, New York
Signed and dated (l.r.): T Hicks 1876
Oil on canvas
19″ x 22 1/2″ framed
Period frame

Born in Newtown, Bucks County, Pennsylvania in 1823, Thomas Hicks was the cousin of the early American painter, Edward Hicks, painter of the renowned early American masterpiece, Peaceable Kingdom.

Young Thomas began studying painting with his esteemed uncle at the age of thirteen. The following year he executed Uncle Edward’s portrait. He went on to study at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art and later at the National Academy of Design in New York City. In 1841, at the tender age of eighteen, Hicks was elected an Associate of the NAD.

In 1845, Thomas embarked on a European tour visiting London, Florence and Rome before settling in Paris to studying with the French artist Thomas Couture. After his European sojourn Hicks returned to New York City and established a portrait studio. He painted a number of important people including Litchfield’s very own Henry Ward Beecher.

Pine Tree and Rocks, Lake George, New York is one of many landscape paintings Hicks executed. He seems to have painted many of the iconic views celebrated by other Hudson River School artists including Eagle Rock at Manchester-by-the-Sea in Massachusetts (Kensett) and vistas in and around the Catskills, including Trenton Falls, New York (Dewitt Clinton Boutelle, Jasper Francis Cropsey and J. F. Kensett), Lake George and the Adirondacks. Hicks passed away in 1890 in Trenton Falls, New York.