Mary

Description

Mary

Henry Ossawa Tanner, c. 1914

About this Piece

Tanner created this piece during a period of difficulty in his personal life. The year 1914 marked the death of his mother, the beginning of World War I, and his forced flee from France to England. Here, Tanner depicts Mary and her dim candle as a symbol of faith while waiting to receive God’s message and presence.

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More About Tanner

Henry Ossawa Tanner was perhaps the most prominent American religious artist at the turn of the 20th century. He was the first child born to Reverend Benjamin Tucker Tanner (of the African Methodist Episcopal Church) and Sarah Tanner (who had escaped enslavement via the Underground Railroad). As a young artist, he met a bishop for the Methodist Episcopal Church named Joseph Crane Hartzell, who arranged a teaching position for him at Clark University. In 1890, Hartzell also organized an exhibition of Tanner’s art. When none of the pieces sold, Hartzell and his wife purchased them in order to fund Tanner’s upcoming trip to Europe.

He spent much of his life studying and practicing art in France, as well as journeying to the Middle East in order to increase the detail in his biblical pieces. He was a regular contributor to the NAACP after its founding in 1910, a member of the National Academy of Design, and a loyal contributor to the American Red Cross’ effort during World War I. One of his greatest distinctions came in 1923, when the French government named him chevalier of the Legion of Honor, the highest French decoration and one of the most famous in the world.