Henry Ossawa Tanner
Christ Walking on the Water
1912-1964
Scroll
Henry Ossawa Tanner
Christ Walking on the Water
1912-1964
Physical Qualities
Etching with printed tone, Sheet: 275 × 336 mm. (10 13/16 × 13 1/4 in.)
Plate: 183 × 242 mm. (7 3/16 × 9 1/2 in.)
Credit Line
Gift of Samuel and Sheila Rosenfeld, New York, in Honor of Bella Rosenfeld
Object Number
2004.184
This print was possibly a study for the painting of the same subject. Besides the change in medium and composition, there are other differences. Tanner seems more interested in communicating the effects of wind and rough seas on a pitching boat through the
use of expressive fluid lines, rather than the transference of calm spirituality through the use of light. This work may constitute Tanner’s earliest experimentation with printmaking. It is one of several of the artist’s etchings that were posthumously published and authenticated by his son, Jesse O. Tanner.
The Baltimore Museum of Art by gift, 2004; Samuel L. Rosenfeld, New York.
Henry Ossawa Tanner and the Influence of Paris
McElroy, Guy C. African-American Artists 1880-1987: Selections from the Evans-Tibbs Collection; Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Traveling Exhibitions Service in association with the University of Washington Press (Seattle and London); 1989, p. 22-28.
Signed: one
Inscribed: RECTO: in matrix, LR: [artist's monogram of T in circle]; VERSO (ink): LL: 108/120; LR (stamp in blue ink): "WORKS OF ART BY/ HENRY O. TANNER/ AUTHENTICATED BY HIS SON/ JESSE O. TANNER/ LE DOUHET- FRANCE"; (signature of Jesse Tanner in ink)
