THE ARTIST Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937) American Realist Painter
WHERE IN THE WORLD? United States of America
The Underground Railroad was established during the early 1800’s. It was a vast network of secret routes, meeting points, and safe houses used by African-Americans to escape from slave-holding states and move into free states, Canada, and Mexico. It was assisted and run by abolitionists and people sympathetic to the cause of those enslaved. Slavery had been a European institution at the time the Americas were discovered and though it was viewed as a disfunction within the society by the founders of our nation, it took much time and effort on the part of people of all races to stop and reverse the practice of keeping slaves. Within the United States, the Southern States depended heavily on slavery for the production of their crops. Northern States were more industrial, not dependent on slave-labor, and were known as free states. The routes existed until the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by President Abraham Lincoln in 1863, proclaiming “that all persons held as slaves” within the states “are, and henceforward shall be free.” Some estimate that by 1850, 100 thousand enslaved people had escaped by using the network of trails, barns, and riverbeds called the Underground Railroad. It was dangerous to all who escaped and all who aided those working their way to freedom. Its name described how people were secretly passed from one “depot” point to another, using the terminology for travel at the time, which was by rail. They seemed to go under the ground, and not be seen publicly as they traveled, trusting those who led them and using only word of mouth to get them to the next point toward freedom.
Henry O. Tanner was the first African-American painter of his time to gain international acclaim as a painter. He moved from the United States to Paris at the age of 32. He had strong anti-slavery and religious roots. His mother was born into slavery and escaped through the Underground Railroad. His father was a bishop in the first independent black denomination in the United States, the African Methodist Episcopal Church. His father was a friend of Frederick Douglass, a writer and civil rights activist. Tanner’s work in realism shows both attention to detail and loose, expressive brushstrokes. These details reflect his training at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts where he was a favorite student of the well-known professor, Thomas Eakins. Tanner painted figures within dark wood interiors where they worked at various activities like spinning wool or playing the banjo. He became a master at painting light as it poured into dark rooms, highlighting cloth and skin. The light reaches parts of the room like a flashlight, revealing the lives of those that lived there. Once he established an artistic career in France, his painting, Daniel in the Lions’ Den was accepted into the 1896 Salon. Seeing him as a painter of religious scenes, an art critic paid Tanner’s expenses to journey to the Middle East, where he could see the landscapes firsthand. Tanner quickly accepted the offer to explore an environment that would bring more realism to his paintings. Tanner’s scenes of daily life, landscapes, and religious subjects give us a great view into the high ideals of family and spiritual aspirations that he held dear.
Set up a simple object beside a window. Arrange the object so that part of it is seen in direct sunlight and another part of it is in the shadows of the wall surrounding the window. Paint a picture showing the colors in light and in shadow. For light, mix the main color with white or light colors. For shadow areas mix the main color with small amounts of black.
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