The Bagpipe Lesson | |
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Artist | Henry Ossawa Tanner |
Completion date | 1893 |
Medium | oil |
Movement | French Academic art |
Subject | boy learning bagpipe with father |
Location | Hampton University Museum, Hampton, Virginia, USA |
The Bagpipe Lesson is a painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner, completed in late 1893 and displayed at the World's Columbian Exposition (May โ October 1893) and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts 63rd annual exhibition, held from December 18, 1893 to February 24, 1894.[2][3] The painting was begun by Tanner during his first summer in France, during a trip to Brittany.[1] He finished the work in Philadelphia.[1]
The picture shows a father teaching his son to play the bagpipe, and the intensity of the man with the "spasmodic efforts" of his son brings humor to the work.[1] In parts of America, this was more widely popular in the 1890s than was The Banjo Lesson, due to sensitivity over racial relations.[4]
Henry O. Tanner is at present busy on a picture intended for the December exhibition at the Academy. The picture was begun sometime ago in Brittany, and represents a father teaching his son to play a bagpipe. The picture is full of spirit, the intense interest of the old man in the boy's progress and the rather spasmodic efforts of the red-faced boy to fill the instrument with wind possessing a quiet humor that is bound to make the picture popular.
Exhibition name: 63rd annual exhibition; Exhibition host name & location: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA; Exhibition dates: December 18 1893 โ February 24 1894; Exhibition additional location & dates (for travel exhibitions): [none]; Exhibition sponsor: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts