Scene of Algiers

Description

Scene of Algiers

Henry Ossawa Tanner, n.d.

About this Piece

Tanner may have been incentivized to visit Algeria by the French government. (At the time, the government subsidized artists who traveled to its colonies.) Tanner visited Algeria in 1908, where he found inspiration for many scenes, including this one. The loose brush strokes suggest trees, hills, and the faint image of a figure.

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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. This helped 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.