Pittsburgh Post-Gazette from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania • Page 81

PITTSBURGH POST-GAZETTE SUNDAY, FEBRUARY 23, 1997 e-9 Cover Story CONTINUED FROM PAGE G-1 A bold statement from a 12-year-old who, in 1872, could not have imagined the fame he would go on to achieve. From an early struggle to even stay alive, to prevailing against prejudice, Henry Ossawa Tanner would become the first black American artist to gain international acclaim. And in October, almost 60 years after his death, he became the first black artist to have a painting in the White House collection. ifffir' i Vt $-4 4 JK "Sand Dunes at Sunset, Atlantic City" (c. 1 886) is the painting that hangs in the Green Room of the White House.

It is representative of the landscape work Tanner did before he studied in Paris. iji.iiiiui ii ira pm A MM WfiUM OF -1 yc af i f-iW 1 Ul 11 tMM segregated Atlanta and rigid Philadelphia. The city of light sparkled with the Vincent van Gogh and the grace of Claude Monet. It set Tanner free. While studying in the smoky studios of the Academie Julian, he found an easy acceptance ard fellowship.

He also set a new artistic goal. I On a walk home from church, he saw thousands milling about the Salon, an annual exhibition: A good showing here would be the path to success. Tanner went inside. The paintings hung from floor to ceiling he felt were within his range. He decided "here is something; ttf work for to be able to malte -picture that should be admitted.

here." Tanner was happy. For twot years, he joked and dined with his classmates and painted summers on the Brittany coast It was only his fragile health, weakened from simple mels ot milk and biscuits, that brought hint home in the summer of pe-J cuperate from typhoid fever. 4 Thanks to his mother's hi? health improved, but he wassick'at' heart to learn of the extent whujfl race hatred continued. The ing negative depictions of blacks through minstrel shows andpe media, were at a high point uid Tanner was thrust into this' I den. He responded Whether it was his participation in the World's Columbian Ejsf-tion in Chicago, which examined the state of black life in Arreapr heeding his father's call mat should positively reflect faiaM'rfJ' humanity, Tanner came to Relieve "sympathy with subjects the best results." As a result in 1893 he (raftetf' 0 "The Banjo Lesson," whichft; mains one of his most celebrated works.

With soft sepia tones iMj' quiet illumination, it portrays, a'dije-, nified older man teaching a' boy to play the banjo a pOigflgnC metaphor of values being passed from one generation to the i)iIt' was an image meant to combaj.f stereotypes. i' Perhaps "The Banjo mains so endearing because 'it pf-j fers an intimate reflection oCthe, t( I-nurturing role Tanner's father played in his life. The "Banjo Lesson," now Hampton (Va.) University Mus'em was well-received in the blacjt 0o)tn-munity. It was admired by educate. Booker T.

Washington and scholar W.E.B. DuBois, who both Tanner to do more black genre painting. Its success in exnibitibris was another story. Tanner won i' medal at an Atlanta exposition in 1895 for the "The Bagpipe Lesson," a painting devoid of race. Banjo Lesson," showing at same event and of similar theme, was separated from this work 'nq exhibited in a special "Negro Build-.

ing." "The Banjo Lesson" was alsd sent to the Paris Salon. It received no critical notice or media attep-('' 'V tion. Tanner blamed it on me fact If was installed extremely high wall. Acts of faith Tanner returned to France. in 1895.

At age 35, he was slight build, but distinguished natty and handsome. His auburn'-," tinged brown hair mond complexion. Round wire" glasses framed his intense rested under a broad scholarly goatee complementers? quiet character and reflected, newed spirit and direction. SEE TANNER, PAGET3--W' In the beginning Henry Ossawa Tanner was born June 21, 1859 in Pittsburgh. He was the first of nine children of Sarah Elizabeth and Benjamin Tucker Tanner.

They lived at 41 Enoch St, a quiet, nearly hidden slip in the Hill District that's most likely now the site of the Ozanam Cultural Center. The years before the start of the Civil War marked a period when the majority of African Americans were slaves or low-paid laborers. But Tanner was from a family that was free, educated and niltured. legend has it the family supported the fight for freedom by having tHeif Home serve as a way station for the Underground Railroad. His middle name is a tribute to the.

family's abolitionist derived from the town of Qsawatomie, site of John Brown's first antislavery campaign, Because Tanner was born frail and sickly, surviving for a year was cause for thanksgiving. His father, an African Methodist Episcopal minister, wrote in his diaries (excerpted in various books): "This is the first birthday my dear little son eo'er saw. The Lord has blessed both him and us wonderfully." A few months later in 1860 the familyleft town so that the father could' teach and pastor in Washington, and Maryland. Lessons The family eventually settled in Philadelphia, the city that would give birth to Tanner's talents. The' day after his encounter in thepark, Tanner said he went "straight to the spot where I had seen-the artist" and began a course of self-training.

"With encouragement and 15 cents from his parents to purchase baslc'art supplies, Henry Tanner began to paint By his own admissionit' was a difficult start "Whether I got the most paint upon thfrcahvas, upon myself or upon the 'ground, it would be hard to tell. But! was happy, supremely so, there.can be no doubt" Tanner said, according to a 1909 biography. Around the time of Tanner's decision to paint Philadelphia was burgeoning. But like much of the country, it was also racially restrictive. Public accommodations were segregated.

Blacks rode on the bactof the trolley. And Henry Tanner was denied art instruction from private studios. However, the persistent Tanner continued his self-training by viewing exhibitions and studying art journals. As a teen-ager, Tanner remained shy and sickly, so his parents worried. And even more so when he considered art as a career, because they knew it would be a most difficult struggle for an African American.

So, in 1877, they found work for Tanner in the flour business of a family friend. I To do any painting now, he later "had to be up with the dSwJi lo seize the precious minutes mm. J1! I I Rae Alexander-Minter collection The Tanner family (c. 1890): From left, Isabella, Halle and her daughter Sadie, Henry Benjamin Tanner, Carlton (standing), Mrs. Tanner, Bertha, Sarah (standing) and Mary.

Rae Alexander-Minter collection A photograph of Henry Ossawa Tanner (date unknown). of light" before going off to sell flour. The schedule was a strain, and Tanner became severely ill. However, he was still determined to paint. And in 1879, now in his early 20s, Tanner enrolled in the Philadelphia Academy of the Fine Arts.

Tanner is described in the "Adventures of an Illustrator," a 1925 autobiography of famed cityscapist Joseph Pennell, an Academy classmate. "He came, he was young, an octoroon light-skinned, very well dressed, far better than most of us He was quiet and modest and he 'painted it seemed 'among his other We were interested at first but he soon passed almost unnoticed." A more disturbing incident, probably occurring at the end of a school term, happened between Pennell, other classmates and Tanner. Pennell, whom some art historians characterize as being blatantly racist, was likely the instigator here. "One night Tanner's easel was carried out into the middle of Broad Street and, though not painfully crucified, he was firmly tied to it and left there." Tanner survived the taunts and trained with the Academy for six years, eventually befriending his tutor, painter Thomas Eakins. Eakins, now considered one of America's greatest artists, was a radical instructor who sought a more graphic and realistic representation of form through his work with nude models and cadavers.

Eakins taught Tanner to paint the life that was around him, to give validity to the ordinary, with mood and poise. Tanner adapted these lessons into his own style and, buoyed by some successes at selling magazine illustrations, sought in 1889 to merge art with enterprise. That winter, Tanner headed to Atlanta to open a photography stu-'dio. With four African-American colleges, the Peach City was an emerging center of black education, and Tanner thought its black middle class could support his studio. But it was a failed venture that left him little time to paint tended to live in Rome, where black American sculptor Edmonia Lewis, best known for her sculpture, "Cleopatra," had studied and found success.

But what he thought would be a brief stop in Paris would change the course of his life. Tanner did, however, meet Methodist Bishop Joseph Hartzell, who would soon become a friend and patron. Using his Cincinnati connections, Hartzell sponsored a solo exhibition for Tanner there. Despite the show's receiving critical praise, nothing sold. In response, Hartzell purchased the entire collection, enough to finance Tanner's move to Europe in 1891.

The 31-year-old Tanner had in- Seeing the light Tanner found a bold canvas in Paris. It was magical compared to ill 'h ih; ft jwijiio The Tanners: a legacy of accomplishment By Ervin Dyer, Post-Gazette Staff Writer pnrv flssawa Tanner was hnm a fniirth-een- IT erauon nusourgner, me aescenaani 01 wnai has been called a Dioneerins black familv. His father, Benjamin Tucker Tanner, his dren. Seven lived to adulthood, and many of them carried on in the tradition that their grandparents had established, using education to blaze trails in religion, education, law and medicine. Henry Tanner became an artist of international renown Halle Tanner studied medicine at Women's Medical College of Pennsylvania.

She later established a hospital and nurses school at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Mary Louise Tanner married Aaron Mossell and had three children, Sadie, Aaron and Elizabeth. Sadie became the most distinguished. She graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and went on to become the first woman to earn a Ph.D in economics in America. She later became the first black woman to graduate from the law school at Penn.

Sadie married Raymond Pace Alexander, a prominent lawyer and Philadelphia councilman. Isabelle Tanner married, with no children, she became active in religious work. Carlton M. Tanner attended Episcopal Divinity School and worked as a pastor in Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., and Chicago. Sara Elizabeth Tanner schoolteacher; her husband Lewis Moore would help found Howard University Teacher's College.

Bertha Tanner graduated from Drexel Institute. Married Samuel Patterson Stafford, a doctor. It is not known whether any of Hugh and Isabella Tanner's other children went to college, but some went on to distinguish themselves. Mary Tanner, the youngest married a Rev. Mr.

Russell and they were active in church activities. All of their children would go on to graduate from college and become professors, doctors and scholars. Arena I. Tanner married Charles H. Brown, a teacher in St.

Louis. Their daughter, Maudelle Brown Bousfield, became a noted educator in Chicago. Hatley Tanner married Sarah Ann Collins II. They had six children. Their daughters Parthenia and would become the first black women to work as switchboard operators for Bell Telephone in PrtJ.

burgh. '4': Its is also noted that Parthenia is called of "The Pittsburgh Courier." Edward Harlestori, noted as the Courier's founder and first editor, was a bdajder in her home in 1910, the year the paper was beguilv Nancy Tanner married Lewis Woodson, the minister of Bethel A.M.E. Church, who also his" mark on Pittsburgh and the nation as a civic le'adef and abolitionist. They had 11 children. The daughter, Nancy Woodson, married James Duckrey of'; 1 Philadelphia and they had four sons, all of uated from the University of Pennsylvania.

One sojif' Tanner Duckrey, would become the first black'djsWct superintendent in Philadelphia schools. Tanner Difcjc-1 rey would marry Courtney McCard and they Woulij have one daughter, Nancy Duckrey Washington; Who '1'' would go on to earn a Ph.D in educational psychology! Dr. Nancy Duckrey Washington lives in Pittsburgh'1 today. She is assistant to the chancellor at the UniveV-4'' sity of Pittsburgh. She moved here in the mid-'60s and became mpr awarfe of her link with the Tanner family when commemorating her distant cousin Henry OssaW'S1; Tanner was unveiled in 1973.

"It is really exciting because I don't know that jlipsf Pittsburghers realized that tHenry's roots were right' here." But for Washington, it goes beyond personal "The excitement really is in discovering a a community and a collective history with our culture fc and background, with what we knew then and felt and experienced then." For Nancy Washington and her husband, MiTtorr Washington, a construction company owner, of accomplishnlent continues. They have two Linda Armsfrbng is a physician in New York and La' Thomas is a financial investor in Washington, D.e '0, A -'1 grandfather, Hugh S. Tanner, and his great-grandfather, Herman Tanner, had all lived in Pittsburgh beginning in the 18th century. According to local historian Patricia Pugh Mitchell itts likely all the generations of Tanners would have been free people. In 1780, Pennsylvania was one of the first states to pass the Gradual Abolitionist Act a bill that.aljowed for the offspring of slaves in free states to be free citizens.

The.free blacks in Pittsburgh would have been a tightly knit community of tradespeople and artisans, but'also ministers and educators. Early census records suggest that Henry Tanner's grandfather Hugh Tanner was a free man who worked as a laborer. Hugh Tanner and his wife, Isabella Tanner, had 12 children. Jbey were a family characterized as deeply religious, who supported antislavery efforts and attempts to educate blacks, believing this was key to improving Jife. As a result Benjamin Tanner worked as a barber to pay his way through Avery College in Old Allegheny.

He also studied at Western Theological Seminary for three years and was licensed as a minister at Pittsburgh's Bethel A.M.E Church. Eventually he became a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. heritage of Sarah Miller Tanner, Henry's mother, is more elusive. A ,1969 biography of Henry Tanner says she was the daughter of a slave and a plantation owner in Winchester, She traveled to Pittsburgh via the Underground Railroad. Sarah and Benjamin Tucker Tanner had nine chil- a nun tnHn.nmmwt Martha RialPost-Gazette Nancy Duckrey Washington and her husband, Milton Washington.

Nancy, who is a distant cousin to the painter, owns two original Tanner works, which were anniversary gifts from her husband. She holds an etching titled "Christ Walking on Water" and hanging on the wall is "American Red Cross," one of the few works from Tanner during World War II..