Henry Ossawa Tanner | |
---|---|
![]() Tanner in 1907 by Frederick Gutekunst | |
Born | Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. | June 21, 1859
Died | May 25, 1937 Paris, France | (aged 77)
Education | Studied with Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Later studied with Jean Paul Laurens and Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant at the Académie Julian in Paris, France. |
Known for | Painting and drawing |
Notable work |
|
Movement | American Realism, French Academic, Impressionism, Symbolism |
Spouse |
Jessie Macauley Olssen
(m. 1899; died 1925) |
Children | 1 |
Awards | Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts' Lippincott Prize, 1900; Silver medal, Exposition Universelle, Paris, 1900 |
Elected | Elected a member of the National Academy of Design, 1910. Made an honorary chevalier of the Order of the Legion of Honor, 1923. |
Patron(s) | Joseph Crane Hartzell, Rodman Wanamaker, Atherton Curtis |
Henry Ossawa Tanner (June 21, 1859 – May 25, 1937) was an American artist who spent much of his career in France. He became the first African-American painter to gain international acclaim.[1] Tanner moved to Paris, France, in 1891 to study at the Académie Julian and gained acclaim in French artistic circles. His painting Daniel in the Lions' Den (1895, location unknown) was accepted into the 1896 Salon,[2] the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris.[3] Tanner's Resurrection of Lazarus (1896, Musée d'Orsay, Paris) was purchased by the French government after winning the third-place medal at the 1897 Salon. In 1923, the French government elected Tanner chevalier of the Legion of Honor.[4][5]
After pursuing art on his own as a young man, Tanner enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia in 1879. The only black student, he became a favorite of the painter Thomas Eakins, who had recently started teaching there. Tanner made other connections among artists, including Robert Henri. In the late 1890s, art patron Rodman Wanamaker sponsored Tanner's trip to the Mutasarrifate of Jerusalem after seeing the artist's paintings of biblical themes.[6]
Tanner married Jessie Macauley Olssen on December 14, 1899, in London. Their son, Jesse Ossawa Tanner, was born in New York City on September 25, 1903.[7] The family made France their permanent home, dividing time between Paris and a farm in Normandy.[8]
Matthews, Marcia
was invoked but never defined (see the help page).