The second son of a wealthy magistrate, Hicks was encouraged by his parents to study medicine at University College and after three years of "ardous and disagreeable study", he instead decided to become an artist. As such, his artistic training came rather later in life compared to his contemporaries. In 1843, Hicks attended Sass's Academy and by 1844 had entered the Royal Academy Schools.

By the late 1860s, the popularity of genre painting had declined and Hicks began to focus on historical subjects, then society portraiture in the 1870s. He retired in the 1890s and died a month before the declaration of World War I.