Henry Ossawa Tanner

Bishop Benjamin Tucker Tanner

1897

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Henry Ossawa Tanner

Bishop Benjamin Tucker Tanner

1897

Physical Qualities Oil on canvas, Framed: 18 1/4 x 13 in. (46.4 x 33 cm) Unframed: 16 1/8 x 11 3/4 in. (41 x 29.8 cm)

Credit Line Partial and promised gift of Eddie C. Brown, C. Sylvia Brown, and their Children, Tonya Y. Brown Ingersol and Jennifer L. Brown, Baltimore

Object Number 2002.561

Despite the artist’s rather modest inscription, “a hurried study of my dear father,” this serene portrait packs a punch far beyond its diminutive size. Henry Ossawa Tanner portrayed his father, Benjamin Tucker Tanner (1835-1923) wearing the robes of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. A discrete gold cross gleams on his chest. By the time Tanner painted the portrait, his father, long a minister in the Church, had been elected a bishop and was nationally known for his work as a prolific writer and editor of AME publications. Tanner’s reddish brown tones nod to the powerful work of the Dutch master Rembrandt van Rijn (whose work is on view in the Jacobs Wing), while his straightforward, unadorned presentation recalls his studies with Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, during the early 1880s. A portrait by Eakins hangs nearby.

National Collection of Fine Arts, Washington, D.C., TL.6.1969.16.
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Cat. # 40, L.478-1990-001.

Nelson-Atkins Musuem of Art, "Across Continents and Cultures: The Art and Life of Henry Ossawa Tanner," June 25-August 2, 1995, checklist #21; circulated to Dallas Museum of Art and Terra Museum of American Art, Chicago through April 28, 1996.

James Smalls, The Baltimore Museum of Art, "Henry Ossawa Tanner and the Lure of Paris," December 7, 2005 - May 28, 2005.

James Smalls, The Baltimore Museum of Art, "Henry Ossawa Tanner and His Influence in America," June 7, 2006 - November 26, 2006.

BMA Today, March/April 2003 ill. p. 7

BMA Today, Winter 2005/2006, ill. p. 6

Jay Hancock, 'Fractional art donations prove charity starts at home,' "The Baltimore Sun," Sunday, 2/4/2007, 6C, ill.

Inscribed: FACE, signed and inscribed in lower right corner of painting in reddish brown paint: A Hurried Study of my Dear Father H.O. Tanner Kan. City Sep 1897 Label on frame: Wm. M. Hall Art Goods 25 27 So. 9th St. Phila. On right stretcher bar: 67 3/4 On top stretcher bar: (13 1/4); written above this: 1 1/2 22 32 Aut. T On left stretcher bar: an area that looks as if a label had been removed. Labels on blueboard backing board: - National Collection of Fine Arts T.L. 6.1969.16 - Philadelphia Museum of Art Loan 478-1900-001 cat. #4016 - Nelson-Atkins Museum retrospective exhibition 1995-6 "Across Continents and Cultures Cat. No. 21"