Henry Ossawa Tanner

A painter of international reputation, Henry Ossawa Tanner was the foremost African American artist at the beginning of the twentieth century. The son of an African Methodist Episcopal bishop from Philadelphia, he studied sporadically at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1879 through 1885, at times with realist painter Thomas Eakins. As was the practice for aspiring American artists, Tanner journeyed to Europe to study art in 1891. He intended to study in Rome but chose Paris instead, enrolling at the Académie Julian in Paris under French academic painter Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant (1845–1902). Tanner returned temporarily to Philadelphia two years later, and shortly thereafter presented a paper, “The American Negro in Art,” at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago, an event from which African Americans were largely excluded.

Tanner’s stay abroad heightened his awareness of injustices suffered by African Americans at home. Upon his return to the United States he produced scenes of everyday life that featured African Americans. Observing that they usually were represented in a comic or demeaning fashion, Tanner sought to present his subjects in a sympathetic manner.

To further his career Tanner returned to France in 1894. The following year, he began to paint the biblical scenes for which he is best known. Critics praised these works for their spiritual intensity. Tanner’s approach to his religious subjects was informed by symbolism, an artistic movement whose adherents sought to express abstract or mystical ideas through their art. Repudiating what he regarded as the low standards for contemporary religious art, Tanner insisted that these important themes be treated with the same artistic seriousness as other subjects. He used loose brushwork, muted color, and symbolic light to draw attention to his subjects and to infuse his images with mystery. The “oriental” settings of his New Testament subjects were drawn from his travels to North Africa, where he studied the distinctive indigenous architecture in order to infuse his scriptural portrayals with immediacy and authenticity.

Except for a few years of residency in New York (1902–1904), Tanner chose to spend the remainder of his life in France. A member of the American Art Association of Paris, he forged collegial relationships with his white American colleagues that would have been unimaginable in the United States. France’s relatively liberal racial atmosphere explains why the artist chose to live abroad, despite his avowed love of America. The recipient of numerous awards and honors in both the United States and Europe, Tanner was an inspiration for younger African American artists.