Detroit Free Press from Detroit, Michigan • Page 284

Henry Ossawa Tanner Illlliip 1906 "The Disciples at Emmaus" is purchased by the French government for 4,000 francs and joins "Resurrection of Lazarus" in the Musee du Luxembourg. 1909 The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People is founded. Although Tanner spends a large part of his adult life in France, he remains an active member of the organization and keeps close ties with African-American leaders like W.E.B. DuBois and Booker T. Washington.

1914 World War I begins, and Tanner is forced to leave his summer home in Trepiad, near Etaples, in Normandy. He settles in England. 1915 Tanner is awarded a gold medal at the Panama-Pacific Exposition in San Francisco. 1917-19 Tanner works for the American Red Cross in France as an ambulance driver. On Canvas: Immortality Harbor Scene Enthusiastic about the seascape paintings he saw in Philadelphia shop windows on the way home from school, young Tanner decided to become a "marine" painter.

He painted "Harbor Scene" when he was 16 or 17, before he had received any formal art training. In the marshy foreground a man tugs a sailboat's line while two others stand by a fire. The dark brown foreground contrasts with the lighter blues and yellows of a ship docked by a warehouse in the hazy background. Pomp at the ZOO Throughout his youth, Tanner drew and painted animals at the Philadelphia Zoo. He especially enjoyed depicting lions, which reappear in his later paintings, including "Daniel in the Lion's Den" (c.

1914) and "Lions in the Desert" (1896). "Pomp at the Zoo" was an ambitious painting for the young artist, showing both the large cat named Pompeii for short) and people in an interior space. Although their proportions reveal some of the awkwardness of a youthful painter, the figures display a range of emotions, from fascination to fear. This gift for describing characters would serve Tanner well as he tried to establish himself as an illustrator. The Three Marys Tnis Painting depicts a passage in 1873 Sarah Elizabeth' Tanner, Henry's fourth sister, is born.

She later marries Lewis B. Moore, the first black to receive a doctorate from the University of Pennsylvania. 1878 Bertha Tanner, Henry's fifth sister, is born. She later becomes a social worker. 1880-82 Tanner studies under renowned American painter Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.

1882-88 While working to establish himself in the art world, Tanner lives with his parents in Philadelphia. He also sells illustrations to New York publishers and his work is exhibited at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and the National Academy of Design in New York. 1884 Benjamin Tanner launches the A.M.E. Church Review, the only national magazine published for blacks at that time. 1888 Disappointed by his lack of success, Henry Tanner moves to Atlanta, where he establishes himself as a professional photographer.

1889 Tanner teaches art for nine months at Clark University in Atlanta. 1891 Tanner travels to Paris to escape racial strife in the United States. 1891 Halle Tanner Dillon, Henry's sister, completes her education at Women's Medical College in Philadelphia and moves to Alabama to work with Booker T. Washington at the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute. 1918 World War I ends.

1921 Tanner's work is shown at the first large all-black art show held at the New York Public Library branch at 135th Street, now better known as the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture. 1922 A group of African-American artists in Washington, D.C., establishes the Tanner Art League, which promotes black art and artists. 1923 Tanner's father dies. Tnrmpr rptnrns tn the TTS fnr a If i if UV it 1891-1896 Tanner studies with Jean Joseph Benjamin-Constant and Jean-Paul Laurens at Academie Julien for five years. He also joins the American Art Club.

the Gospel of Mark, when Mary Magdalene, Mary, mother of James, and Mary Salome find the boulder of Christ's tomb miraculously rolled aside. Tanner frequently selected Biblical subjects that allowed him to render the psychology of the individuals depicted. In "The Three Marys," each figure reacts individually. While shock characterizes the third Mary, the two in front ap- Jessie Olssen Tanner looking at her son, Jesse (May 1906) Jacques Tanner 1896 Tanner's painting "Raising of Lazarus" wins the medal of the third class at the Paris Salon. This painting is later purchased by the French government for the Luxembourg Gallery and can now be seen at the Musee d'Orsay.

1898 Tanner travels to the Holy Land, sketching and painting around Jerusalem and the Dead Sea. 1899 Tanner marries Jessie M. Olssen, an American woman of Swedish ancestry, on Dec. 14 at Saint Giles-in-the Fields, Bloomsbury, London. 1899 Tanner's "Christ and Nicodemus on a Rooftop" is exhibited at the Salon and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where it wins the 1893 Tanner returns to Philadelphia but is overwhelmed by the racial tension.

1893 Tanner paints one of his most recognized pieces, "The Banjo Lesson." 1 at iw Henry Ossawa Tanner Lent by Rae Alexander -Minter 1835 Benjamin Tucker Tanner, Henry's father, is born a freeman in Pittsburgh. A prominent minister and bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, Benjamin Tanner's strong religious values are thought to have inspired his son's fascination with religious art. 1859 Henry Ossawa Tanner is born June 21 in Pittsburgh, the eldest of seven children. 1861 The Civil War begins. 1861 Tanner's father establishes a school for freed men in the United 'Harbor Scene' Wb Comprehend the Spiritual Jessie Tanner, father and son (c.

1906) Jacques Tanner one-man show of his religious paintings at the Grand Central Art Galleries in New York City. The exhibit, which includes 19 of his famous religious paintings, opens in January 1924. Tanner is made a chevalier of the Legion of Honor, the highest recognition that the French government can bestow on a non-military person 1925 His wife, Jessie, dies Sept. 8. 1927 Tanner is elected a full academician in the National Academy of Design.

1930 Tanner receives the Walter L. Clark prize for his entry "Etaples Fisher Folk" in the Members Prize Exhibition at the Grand Central Art Galleries in New York City. 1936 Tanner completes his final signed and dated piece, "Returrl from the event. Mary Magdalene raises her hand to her face in a gesture of contemplation. Street in Tangier Tanner's trips to the Holy Land to find authentic settings and characters for his Biblical paintings were followed, in 1912, by a trip to Morocco.

Like many foreign Lippincott Prize and is purchased in 1900 for display in what is now Temple University. 1904 Tanner is awarded a medal at the St. Louis Exposition. He returns to Paris. 1906 "The Two Disciples at the Tomb" wins the Harris Prize of $500 for most distinguished work of the art season from the Art Institute of Chicago.

The painting is added to its permanent collection. 1 States Navy Yard while working as pastor of 15th Presbyterian Church in Jesse Tanner (1911) Jacques Tanner Washington. 1863 The Emancipation Proclamation is signed, freeing the nation's enslaved African population. 1 flAAA TT 11 TT 1 CM 1A 1 i. 1 artists seeing North Africa for the first i8D i tiaiie anner, nenry sisier, is Dora, one later ueeumes uie first licensed physician in Alabama.

From 'Pomp a( (he Zoo'fo. J880, deiaio time, Tanner was fas 1865 The Civil War ends. Crucifixion." 1937 Tanner dies in his sleep on May 25 in Paris, having paved the way for future generations of black artists like Romare Bearden, Hale Woodruff and Aaron Douglas. cinated by the quality of light there. "Street in Tangier" presents a vivid scene from an archway opening onto a street beyond; individuals and buildings dissolve in the brilliant light and rich shadows which become the artist's primary subject.

Probably painted spontaneously out of doors, the thick surface of ft If fj paint shows that Tanner worked with a brush and palette knife. The Good Shepherd Tanner painted many versions of the good shepherd theme, which, like the flight into Egypt, was one of his favorite subjects. In this version, the view of the mountains is so overwhelming that a quick look might not reveal the shepherd and his flock in the 1866 The Tanner family moves to Philadelphia. 1866 Mary Louise Tanner, said to be Henry's favorite sister, is born. She later marries Aaron Mossell, the first black person to graduate from the University of Pennsylvania law school.

1867 Isabella Tanner Temple, Henry's sister, is born. She later becomes active in religious and educational work. 1870 Carlton Tanner, Henry's brother, is born. He later becomes managing editor of the South African Christian Recorder. 1872 After seeing an artist at work in Fairmount Park, Tanner is inspired to paint.

'is V'- -L'L The. Three Marys' (JVIO, detail) It It i iw i mi Eiffel Tower (c.1900) lower right corner. The immense valley and the seemingly bottomless chasm give the landscape a great expansiveness. The rough surfaces of the mountains, enhanced by the encrusted layers of Henry Tanner's sister Halle (c. 1890) Rae Alexander-Minter J' -L 1 -iK Ml Avf Ifph.

I ticfoil rom 'Sired in Tangier' (c. ,0 A The Tanner family (c. 1890), from left: Isabella, Halle, her daughter Sadie, Henry, Bishop Tanner, Carlton, Mrs. Tanner, Bertha, Sarah and Mary Rae Alexander-Minter If oil and tempera paint, increase their visual presence while diminishing that of the lone shepherd. Jesse O.

Tanner, the artist's son, said his father had a strong sense that Jesus watches over his flock and that man and God together are necessary to overcome evil. These themes are powerfully ex 1 yiJ" 1 JL jOsssststf' A if If if I 1 'j ,1 'J, 1 xt" I 1 pressed in the Twenty-third Psalm, which remains today an important part of the liturgy of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, in which Tanner was raised. Looking at Tanner's later works such as this one, African-American artist Romare Bearden wrote: "Tanner tells us much of what he thinks about the world and of man's place in it. This kind of self-exploration when integrated by a personality of real proportion can be both vital and transcendent." if 1 A 0 detail jrom the Good Shepherd (Atlas Mountains, Morocco), fc. 19.36).