Henry Ossawa Tanner

Henry Ossawa Tanner was the first African-American painter to gain international acclaim, celebrated for his evocative religious scenes and introspective portraits.

ABOUT

Born in Pittsburgh in 1859, Henry Ossawa Tanner's path to becoming an artist was shaped by both his family's strong intellectual and abolitionist roots and the challenges of racial prejudice in America. His father, a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, instilled in him a deep sense of purpose, while his mother, possibly born into slavery, inspired resilience. At just 13, after seeing a landscape painter at work, Tanner knew his calling. Tanner enrolled at the P…

Read Henry's full story in Art Whisper

NOTABLE WORKS

The Laundress 1880 Sand Dunes at Sunset, Atlantic City 1885 · White House Wynkoop House, Old Haarlem 1888 · New Britain Museum of American Art Mountain Landscape, Highlands, North Carolina 1889 · Smithsonian American Art Museum Highlands, N.C. 1889 · Smithsonian American Art Museum Woman from the West Indies 1891

See all of Henry's works in Art Whisper

INFLUENCES

Influenced by

Thomas EakinsAmerican Realism Thomas HovendenAmerican Realism Jean-Paul LaurensFrench Academic