Henry Ossawa Tanner
To continue celebrations of Black History Month, today we would like to present Henry Ossawa Tanner. Enjoy!
Henry Ossawa Tanner was an American artist and the first African American painter to gain international acclaim. Tanner moved to Paris in 1891 to study at the Académie Julian and gained acclaim in French artistic circles, and later in US ones. Here the artist painted his mother, Sarah Elizabeth Miller, who was one of eleven children born to a slave who sent her children to freedom by the Underground Railroad. This Railroad was a network of secret routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. Members of the Pennsylvania Abolitionist Society divided the children into various families, sending Sarah to Pittsburgh. In this portrait, Tanner captured the wisdom and experience of a woman who had endured much in her life, rising from slavery to raise well-educated and successful children. Tanner kept this portrait in his personal collection and spoke affectionately of it in letters to his family.
Henry Ossawa Tanner was heavily inspired by the artist James McNeill Whistler, who experimented with tonal harmonies in his painting. Whistler's works were an inspiration to the French Impressionists; as you can see, a lot of the art world is interconnected. If you would like to learn more about the Impressionists, please check our online course here.
P.S. Have you heard of Harlem Renaissace? Here you can read a fascinating story of 20th century African American artists who expressed themselves in arts like never before!