Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937)
The Seine, c. 1902
Henry Ossawa Tanner was the first African-American painter to achieve an international reputation. Born in Pittsburgh, the son of a minister, his family moved to Philadelphia when he was a child. Encouraged by his father to follow him into the ministry, Tanner was determined to be an artist, and in 1879 enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy. His major teacher was Thomas Eakins, with whom he would study off and on until 1885. Tanner gained rigorous training in drawing and figure painting that was the hallmark of the Academy’s program. It was not easy for a person of color to have a career in the fine arts, and several difficult years followed his Academy classes. But supporters helped him amass sufficient funds to study in Paris at the Académie Julian, and early in 1891 he left for Paris. Deciding to make one last attempt to achieve professional success in America, he returned to Philadelphia.
The Seine indicates that Tanner was familiar with the French impressionists' on-the-spot observations of nature. This tiny oil sketch reduces the Paris skyline to a violet band silhouetted between a pink sunset and its reflection in the river Seine. The Trocadéro Palace, an ornate exhibition hall built for the 1878 World’s Fair, dominates the view, while a lone figure on the shadowy dock recalls the mystical aura of Tanner's religious scenes.
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