The Peaceable Kingdom returns….
In 1982, Benini painted this 8 ft. x 8 ft. painting entitled The Peaceable Kingdom: A Tribute to Brother Hicks.
He was living on the shores of Lake Harney, on the north-flowing St. John’s River, northeast of Orlando. It is the only one he painted with a grouping of animals. The leopard with its rosettes (what is commonly called its spots) was a special challenge, and so…. one rose above, two birds and eight animals on a deep blue background became his rendition related to the Isaiah 11:6 verse.
This verse, in the King James version, speaks that the wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid, and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together….various revisions abound, but the theme being that peace will exist throughout the kingdom with animals at peace with each other…and it is the theme that Edward Hicks, a Quaker repeated in his paintings again and again.
Edward Hicks (1780-1849), an Aries like Benini, was born in Pennsylvania, and became a minister of the Society of Friends. He painted 62 paintings of the harmonious Peaceable Kingdom, one example follows.
Benini’s Peacheable Kingdom was still on the easel when his collector Sheila Martin Stone flew in from California, purchased it, and added it to her large collection of Benini’s work. A gracious and generous lady, Sheila Martin Stone, died last year, and knowing, MuseoBenini is established as a single-artist museum, her will specified the painting be returned to the museum, where it will be on display. Our appreciation to her and to World Air and Ocean Services of San Francisco for the safe crating and delivery to MuseoBenini.
