The Cornell Farm

This painting depicts the rural property of the Cornell family in Pennsylvania, reflecting Edward Hicks’s close connection to the local Quaker community. Rather than focusing on strict realism, Hicks presents the farm as an ordered and harmonious environment, where people, animals, and landscape coexist peacefully.

The composition emphasizes clarity and balance, with carefully arranged buildings, fields, and figures. Hicks often used repetition and simplified forms to create a sense of stability and moral order. His work reflects Quaker values such as simplicity, humility, and harmony with nature.

Like many of his paintings, The Cornell Farm is both a record of a real place and an expression of an ideal. It presents rural life not as it is, but as it should be, calm, structured, and guided by spiritual principles.