The Good Shepherd

Henry Ossawa Tanner was an American artist and the first African-American painter to gain international acclaim. Although many artists refused to accept an African-American apprentice, in 1879 Tanner enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia, becoming the then only black student. His decision to attend the school came at an exciting time in the history of artistic institutional training. Art academies had long relied on tired notions of study devoted almost entirely to plaster cast studies and anatomy lectures. This changed drastically with the addition of Thomas Eakins as “Professor of Drawing and Painting” to the Pennsylvania Academy. Eakins encouraged new methods such as study from live models, direct discussion of anatomy in male and female classes, and dissections of cadavers to further familiarity and understanding of the human body. Although he gained confidence as an artist and began to sell his work, he had to deal with racism in Philadelphia. Tanner left America for France in late 1891. In this painting he downplayed the story in favor of the impressive landscape itself. Tanner’s son Jesse remembered that The Good Shepherd was his father’s favorite subject. The artist believed that “God needs us to help fight with him against evil and we need God to guide us”.