(b Newtown, PA, 18 Oct 1823; d Trenton Falls, NY, 8 Oct 1890). Cousin of (1) Edward Hicks. After being apprenticed (c. 1835–9) in the sign-painting shop of his cousin, he studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia (1839–40) and at the National Academy of Design in New York (1840–44). He then sketched and painted in England, Italy and France before becoming a student of Thomas Couture in Paris (1848–9). On his return to the USA in 1849, he established a studio in New York and quickly became a popular portrait painter, although his portrayals only rarely have enough psychological depth to make them of more than documentary interest. Hamilton Fish (1852; New York, City Hall) is among his stronger works. Hicks also painted genre subjects, such as Musicale: Barber Shop, Trenton Falls (1866; Raleigh, NC Mus. A.), and landscapes, the latter chiefly near Thornwood, his summer residence at Trenton Falls, NY. His early landscape style, which was in the manner of the Hudson River school, gave way to an Impressionist technique in the 1870s.

Part of the Hicks family