After Whistler

Travel to Paris was a prerequisite for aspiring American painters of the late nineteenth century. Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937), an African American painter born in Pittsburgh, was among the throng of artists to journey there. Tanner decided to become a painter at the age of thirteen after seeing an artist painting outdoors in a park in Philadelphia. In 1897, Tanner enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts where he studied under Thomas Eakins (1844-1916). By 1891, he had arrived in Paris and enrolled in the Académie Julian, his study funded by Atlanta-based patrons Bishop and Mrs. Hartzell. He returned home in 1893, suffering from typhoid fever, but by 1894 Tanner was again in Paris where he would remain for the rest of his career. In 1897, Tanner’s painting La Résurrection de Lazare, exhibited at the Salon of 1897, was awarded a third-class medal and was purchased by the French government for the Musée du Luxembourg, making Tanner an internationally recognized artist. Many of his works reflect spiritual narratives, with the painter looking to the Bible for some of his most important themes. The Disciples See Christ Walking on the Water, seen in this illustration, shows Tanner’s later practice of placing religious scenes in nocturnal settings. The nocturnal setting, asymmetry of the composition, and the high horizon might also remind a viewer of Whistler. An even more significant appropriation of Whistler's aesthetics can be seen in Tanner's portrait of his mother, Sarah Elizabeth Tanner.