Henry Ossawa Tanner - Masterpiece Curations

Check out this free homeschool artist study about realist painter, Henry Ossawa Tanner. This inspiring artist has been referred to as, “the greatest African-American painter to date.”

“I will preach with my brush.” ~Henry Ossawa Tanner

Henry Ossawa Tanner was born June 21, 1859 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. His father, Benjamin Tucker Tanner, was a minister and his mother, Sarah Tanner, was a former slave who had escaped through the Underground Railroad. Henry loved art from a young age and decided by age thirteen that he was going to be an artist.

Though his parents disapproved, Henry enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and became the first African-American to attend the school. While there, he was taught by fellow artist Thomas Eakins, and the two soon became friends. Henry Ossawa Tanner ended up having to leave school early, but during his time there he learned a great deal about art, and was especially good at anatomy.

Henry lived in Philadelphia for nearly a decade after leaving school, and during that time he continued to paint because it made him happy and he found the process therapeutic. Sadly, racism was still an issue after the Civil War, and he had a hard time getting recognized for his works.

***View of the Seine Looking Toward Notre Dame***

Henry Ossawa Tanner quotes : “I decided on the spot that I would be an artist, and I assure you, it was no ordinary artist I had in mind.” Hoping to find a place where his art would be accepted, Henry traveled to Paris, France in 1891. While there, he attended a private art school, the Académie Julian, and joined the American Art Students Club. Henry loved life in Paris, and his efforts proved successful when his art quickly gained more and more recognition, so he decided to set up a permanent residence there and ended up living in Paris for the rest of his life.

Henry also studied at the Louvre under well-known artists such as Jean Joseph Benjamin Constant and Jean-Paul Laurens, and the two artists were able to help him gain recognition for his work. Henry was a realist painter and mostly depicted scenes from everyday life, but by 1895, most of his artwork featured various religious scenes from the bible, such as Daniel in the Lions’ Den and The Resurrection of Lazarus.

These pieces attracted the attention of an art critic named Rodman Wanamaker, who offered to pay for Henry to travel to the Middle East so that he would have first-hand experience in the environment while he continued to paint the biblical scenes. Henry immediately accepted the offer and was able to further his artistic training by traveling to Palestine, where he explored various mosques and biblical sites.

In 1899, Henry married the Swedish-American singer, Jessie Olssen, and together they had a son. People disapproved of the marriage because of their differences in race, but Henry and Jessie didn’t care and lived very happy lives together. During the first World War, Henry worked for the Red Cross Public Information Department, and in that time he also painted images from the front lines of the war. In 1923, the French state made Tanner a knight of the Legion of Honour for his work as an artist.

Henry Ossawa Tanner said: “Get it – get it better, or get it worse. No middle ground for compromise.“ Henry passed away in his home in 1937, but in his life he gained that which he had so desired: recognition for his work, and later influence in his career, and he has even been referred to as, “the greatest African-American painter to date.”