DMA puts spotlight on Henry Ossawa Tanner, the first Black American artist to gain global acclaim

Much like a painting by John Singer Sargent or a novel by Henry James, the two paintings by Henry Ossawa Tanner in the small but extensive exhibition of the artist at the Dallas Museum of Art – fresh from months of careful conservation – offer an insight into the world of cultivated emigrated Americans in Paris around 1900.

In contrast to a Sargent or a James, however, the work of Tanner – the son of a prominent bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and who devoted his later career to painting biblical subjects – also gives us the perspective of the first internationally famous black American artist, who found a respite from American racism in France.

Tanner’s earlier painting in the exhibition, The Thankful Poor from 1894, shows a young boy and his grandfather, heads bowed in prayer, at a modest meal. Their white porcelain dishes, the no-frills wall behind them, and their well-defined clothing glow in the white light that comes in through a curtained window on the left. The work shows the wonder of simple things and in its luminous silence is reminiscent of Dutch genre painting.

The later painting, Christ and His Mother Studying the Scriptures, around 1908, shows Tanner’s later, more impressionistic style. With the Swedish-American wife and the artist’s son serving as models, clad in oriental-style robes and carefully examining a long, slender snail, the solidity of the forms dissolves amid the ethereal hue known as “Tanner Blue” got known.

Henry Ossawa Tanner was photographed by Frederick Gutekunst in 1907.(National Portrait Gallery / Smithsonian Institution)

Both works are reminiscent of the religious belief that Tanner experienced when he grew up in the chic home of his father Benjamin Tanner in Philadelphia, an influential clergyman and newspaper editor who gave his son a middle name in honor of the struggle of the militant anti-slavery John Brown of 1856 in Osawatomie , Kansas., Gave.

But while The Thankful Poor addresses black issues with the precise, realistic style Tanner developed while studying with Thomas Eakins in Philadelphia, Christ and His Mother Studying the Scriptures reflects the artist’s later cosmopolitanism, once shed from the straitjacket of American prejudice was released.

Discouraged by American critics’ reluctance to put his work to the test, Tanner sailed to Europe in 1891 and eventually stayed permanently in France, where he found success commensurate with his talent. There he stated: “I am simply Monsieur Tanner” and he could live in an environment of “absolute social equality”.

Tanner exhibited at the Paris Salon every year from 1894 to 1914. He was honored several times by the French government and sold his work to them. After Tanner’s painting of the biblical Daniel and Lazarus gained recognition in 1897, Philadelphia retail tycoon Rodman Wanamaker sponsored his trip to the Holy Land, where his careful study of local people and culture influenced his later work.

As Tanner’s notoriety grew, he received a steady stream of visitors to his home in the northern French art colony of Étaples, including many younger Black American artists seeking advice. Eventually he was inducted into the French Legion of Honor and the American National Academy of Design and has been considered a giant of black art ever since.

In addition to the paintings themselves, visitors can also see photographs showing the progress and results of the conservation treatment and technical examination of the two works by restorer Laura Hartman, who worked alone for several months in a museum closed by the pandemic. The detailed insight into Tanner’s way of working is the next best thing to look over his shoulder in the studio.

Henry Ossawa Tanner’s “Christ and His Mother Studying the Scriptures” shows the artist’s late impressionist style. (Dallas Art Museum)(Chad Redmon)

The exhibition also shows the importance of the new and well-resourced Art Bridges Foundation, which has funded the conservation and study of the paintings on display. The foundation’s mission is to promote American art in museums across the United States. It’s the brainchild of Fort Worth philanthropist Alice Walton who also created the world-class Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Ark.

Art Bridges bought The Thankful Poor in 2020. It had previously been in the Cosby family’s collection since 1981 when Camille Cosby bought it as a Christmas present for her husband, entertainer Bill Cosby, setting an auction record for a black artist.

Here, paired with a work from the DMA’s own collection, it is a sign of Art Bridge’s broad vision of American art.

details

Focus On: Henry Ossawa Tanner runs through January 2 at the Dallas Museum of Art, 1717 N. Harwood St. Open Tuesday through Sunday, 11am to 5pm. Free season tickets required. 214-922-1200. dma.org.

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