“Peaceable Kingdom” Stirs Things Up at Sotheby’s

NEW YORK—There was a ripple of excitement — though not too much more — on Manhattan’s Upper East Side this morning when Edward Hicks’s The Peaceable Kingdom with the Leopard of Serenity (c. 1846–48) went for $9,673,000 (est. $6–8 million) at Sotheby’s. This exquisite late picture by the man the Sotheby’s catalogue calls “the most celebrated and beloved folk art painter in America” was the star lot of their American Paintings, Drawings, and Sculptures sales today. Under the ever-so-relaxed coaxing of auctioneer Bill Stahl — whose manner (and appearance) is more like that of a gently whispering Garrison Keiler than the cabaret-style excitedness of some of his colleagues — two telephone bidders took the price, in $100,000 increments, up to $6.6 million, at which point they were joined by a third telephone bidder. A Sotheby’s suit standing at the side of the room let out a low whistle as the bidding passed $7.7 million, and the hammer eventually came down at a satisfactory $8.6 million, which translates to $9,673,000 once the buyer’s premium has been added.

The work came to the auction house unexpectedly, when the jewelry dealer and folk art collector Ralph Esmerian, who, according to a lawsuit filed in New York Supreme Court, owes Merrill Lynch Mortgage Capital about $185.3 million, decided not to donate the work to the American Folk Art Museum in New York as intended.

Hicks, who earned a living as a minister and sign painter in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, used his art to promote Quaker doctrines. Over his lifetime he made at least 62 versions of The Peaceable Kingdom; an 1849 rendering sold at Christie's in January 2007 for $6.2 million. Esmerian’s version is reported to be in excellent condition.