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Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937) was one of the leading Afro-American
artists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
In recent years there has been a growing concern about Tanner
and his paintings. His position in Afro-American Art, long
recognized by Blacks, is now to many American Art buffs
a startling mid-twentieth century discovery. Chronologically,
Tanner's works conclude a very impressive line of nineteenth
century Afro-American artistic contributions. Notable among
there are the American "primitive" portraits of
Joshua Johnston (active 1796-ca. 1824), and the neo-classical
sculptures of Edmonia Lewis (1845- ca. 1890). All of these
artists, like their mid-twentieth century counterparts,
express through their lives and in their art our need at
this time for more Black cultural situations, information
exchanges and visual meeting grounds.
Tanner
is frequently described as the most "privileged"
of the nineteenth century Black artists. This notion is
untrue. Black artists, both before and after the nineteenth
century, have found their blackness to be the primary cause
of their art's invisibility in the art markets, galleries,
private collections and museums. Tanner was no exception.
Tanner's
father was a bishop in the African Methodist Church in Philadelphia
and like his wife supported young Tanner's art training.
As a result of their interest Tanner was able to study with
the well-known Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy
of the Fine Arts. Even with these aids Tanner's career was
never assured. He struggled for patrons, commissions and
teaching jobs like other artists here in the United States
with relatively little success and recognition. It was not
until his studies in Paris and travels to North Africa that
Tanner waves were ever felt in this country. The moment
of recognition only briefly came when he won the coveted
gold medal for the painting he submitted in the 1897 Paris
Salon. The news didn't travel very far, however. Apparently
few were actually felt in the United States about Tanner's
International victory.
This
lack of recognition influenced Tanner's decision to never
permanently return to the United States in hopes of making
a livelihood from his paintings. He continued until his
death in 1937 to pain his kind of paintings and live in
Paris.
From
a Black Art perspective Tanner's paintings are representative
of the nineteenth century in both themes and techniques.
Tanner's themes are for the most part largely religious
in character. The source of this motivation arises from
his upbringing in the church and his own spiritual beliefs.
It is no doubt that Tanner was a very religious man and
believed in the Biblical stories he depicted so admirably
on his canvases. The point of Tanner's departure from other
American artists of his day was his understanding and use
of Black subjects as principals in his paintings. He fervently
believed that the Biblical myths could illustrate the struggles
and hopes of Black Americans. From the standpoint of technique
one can see the influence of Eakins and the Impressionists
in his earlier works, but as Tanner's more mature style
develops we sense a spiritualism of Black feeling pervading
his later works.
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