Penn's Treaty with the Indians

Penn's Treaty with the Indians was painted by Edward Hicks in 1840 in oil on canvas. The work's recorded provenance begins with the sculptor Elie Nadelman, who held it until 1943. It then passed through the New York dealer M. Knoedler and Co., which sold it in 1944 to Joseph Katz of New York.

Knoedler handled the painting again in 1947, selling it that year to Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch at Pokety Farms in Cambridge, Maryland. The Garbisches bequeathed the canvas in 1980 to the National Gallery of Art, where it remains in the collection.

Penn's Treaty with the Indians, an 1840 oil on canvas by Edward Hicks, is held by the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. It entered the NGA as part of the bequest of Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch in 1980. Before reaching the Garbisch collection, the painting passed through several owners: it was held by sculptor Elie Nadelman until 1943, then sold in 1944 through M. Knoedler and Co. in New York to Joseph Katz. Katz sold it back to Knoedler in 1947, and the gallery sold it the same year to Edgar William and Bernice Chrysler Garbisch at Pokety Farms in Cambridge, Maryland, where it remained until the 1980 bequest to the NGA.

The sources provided do not document any exhibition history for the painting beyond its provenance and current institutional ownership.

Edward Hicks’s oil on canvas, painted around 1842, portrays a historic meeting between European settlers and Native Americans. The composition centers on two groups clasping hands beneath a solitary tree, with a river, a small boat, and a modest building visible in the distance. The palette is vivid yet shows signs of aging, giving the scene a muted, antiquated appearance.

The image aligns with Romanticism’s tendency to dramatize historical episodes and celebrate perceived noble virtues. By depicting a harmonious treaty, the work participates in a broader 19th‑century discourse that sought to legitimize the nation’s origins through stories of cooperation between settlers and Indigenous peoples.