THE COVER

摘要

When Edward Hicks (1780-1849) died at his home in Newton, Pennsylvania, in the late summer of 1849, thousands of people came from the surrounding Bucks County and beyond to pay their respects. They came not, however, to pay homage to the famous painter we know today, but rather to honor one of the most popular preachers of the time. It is possible, in fact, that few would have known him as a painter and that of those, many would have failed to be impressed or even have disapproved. Hicks himself was ambivalent about painting, discounting it as "one of those trifling insignificant arts," not useful for anything, at best an unworthy vocation, at worst the devil's work.