The Negro in Literature and Art in the United States
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PAINTERS.--HENRY O. TANNER
Painting has long been a medium through which the artistic spirit of therace yearned to find expression. As far back as in the work of PhillisWheatley there is a poem addressed to "S. M." (Scipio Moorhead), "ayoung African painter," one of whose subjects was the story of Damon andPythias. It was a hundred years more, however, before there was reallyartistic production. E. M. Bannister, whose home was at Providence,though little known to the younger generation, was very prominent fortyyears ago. He gathered about himself a coterie of artists and rich menthat formed the nucleus of the Rhode Island Art Club, and one of hispictures took a medal at the Centennial Exposition of 1876. William A.Harper, who died in 1910, was a product of the Chicago Art Institute, atwhose exhibitions his pictures received much favorable comment about1908 and 1910. On his return from his first period of study in Paris his"Avenue of Poplars" took a prize of one hundred dollars at theInstitute. Other typical subjects were "The Last Gleam," "The Hillside,"and "The Gray Dawn." Great hopes were awakened a few years ago by thelandscapes of Richard L. Brown; and the portrait work of Edwin A.Harleston is destined to become better and better known. William E.Scott, of Indianapolis, is becoming more and more distinguished in muralwork, landscape, and portraiture, and among all the painters of the racenow working in this country is outstanding. He has spent several yearsin Paris. "La Pauvre Voisine," accepted by the Salon in 1912, wasafterwards bought by the Argentine government. A second pictureexhibited in the Salon in 1913, "La Misere," was reproduced in theFrench catalogue and took first prize at the Indiana State Fair the nextyear. "La Connoisseure" was exhibited in the Royal Academy in London in1913. Mr. Scott has done the mural work in ten public schools inChicago, four in Indianapolis, and especially was he commissioned by thecity of Indianapolis to decorate two units in the city hospital, thistask embracing three hundred life-size figures. Some of his effects incoloring are very striking, and in several of his recent pictures he hasemphasized racial subjects.
HENRY O. TANNER]
The painter of assured fame and commanding position is Henry OssawaTanner.
The early years of this artist were a record of singular struggle andsacrifice. Born in Pittsburgh in 1859, the son of a minister of verylimited means, he received his early education in Philadelphia. Foryears he had to battle against uncertain health. In his thirteenth year,seeing an artist at work, he decided that he too would become a painter,and he afterwards became a student at the Pennsylvania Academy of FineArts. While still a very young man, he attempted drawings of all sortsand sent these to various New York publishers, only to see them promptlyreturned. A check, however, for forty dollars for one that did notreturn encouraged him, and a picture, "A Lion at Home," from theexhibition of the Academy of Design, brought eighty dollars. He nowbecame a photographer in Atlanta, Ga., but met with no real success; andfor two years he taught drawing at Clark University in Atlanta. In thisperiod came a summer of struggle in the mountains of North Carolina, andthe knowledge that a picture that had originally sold for fifteendollars had brought two hundred and fifty dollars at an auction inPhiladelphia. Desiring now to go to Europe, and being encouraged byBishop and Mrs. Hartzell, the young painter gave in Cincinnati anexhibition of his work. The exhibition failed; not a picture wasregularly sold. Bishop and Mrs. Hartzell, however, gave the artist a sumfor the entire collection, and thus equipped he set sail for Rome,January 4, 1891, going by way of Liverpool and Paris.
In the story of his career that he contributed to the _World's Work_some years ago, Mr. Tanner gave an interesting account of his early daysin Paris. Acquaintance with the great French capital induced him toabandon thoughts of going to Rome; but there followed five years ofpitiless economy, broken only by a visit to Philadelphia, where he soldsome pictures. He was encouraged, however, by Benjamin Constant andstudied in the Julien Academy. In his early years he had givenattention to animals and landscape, but more and more he was drawntowards religious subjects. "Daniel in the Lions' Den" in the Salon in1896 brought "honorable mention," the artist's first officialrecognition. He was inspired, and very soon afterwards he made his firstvisit to Palestine, the land that was afterwards to mean so much to himin his work. "The Resurrection of Lazarus," in 1897, was bought by theFrench government, and now hangs in the Luxembourg. The enthusiasmawakened by this picture was so great that a friend wrote to the painterat Venice: "Come home, Tanner, to see the crowds behold your picture."After twenty years of heart-breaking effort Henry Tanner had become arecognized artist. His later career is a part of the history of theworld's art. He won a third-class medal at the Salon in 1897, asecond-class medal in 1907, second-class medals at the Paris Expositionin 1900, at the Buffalo Exposition in 1901, and at the St. LouisExposition in 1904, a gold medal at San Francisco in 1915, the WalterLippincott Prize in Philadelphia in 1900, and the Harris Prize of fivehundred dollars, in 1906, for the best picture in the annual exhibitionof American paintings at the Chicago Art Institute.
Mr. Tanner's later life has been spent in Paris, with trips to the FarEast, to Palestine, to Egypt, to Algiers, and Morocco. Some years ago hejoined the colony of artists at Trepied, where he has built a commodioushome and studio. Miss MacChesney has described this for us: "His studiois an ideal workroom, being high-ceilinged, spacious, and having theleast possible furniture, utterly free from masses of useless studiostuff and paraphernalia. The walls are of a light gray, and at one endhangs a fine tapestry. Oriental carved wooden screens are at the doorsand windows. Leading out of it is a small room having a domed ceilingand picturesque high windows. In this simply furnished room he oftenposes his models, painting himself in the large studio, the sliding doorbetween being a small one. He can often make use of lamplight effects,the daylight in the larger room not interfering." Within recent yearsthe artist has kept pace with some of the newer schools by brilliantexperimentation in color and composition. Moonlight scenes appeal tohim most. He seldom paints other than biblical subjects, except perhapsa portrait such as that of the Khedive or Rabbi Wise. A landscape mayattract him, but it is sure to be idealized. He is thoroughly romanticin tone, and in spirit, if not in technique, there is much to connecthim with Holman Hunt, the Pre-Raphaelite painter. In fact he long had inmind, even if he has not actually worked out, a picture entitled, "TheScapegoat."
"The Annunciation," as well as "The Resurrection of Lazarus," was boughtby the French government; and "The Two Disciples at the Tomb" was boughtby the Chicago Art Institute. "The Bagpipe Lesson" and "The BanjoLesson" are in the library at Hampton Institute. Other prominent titlesare: "Christ and Nicodemus," "Jews Waiting at the Wall of Solomon,""Stephen Before the Council," "Moses and the Burning Bush," "The Mothersof the Bible" (a series of five paintings of Mary, Hagar, Sarah, Rachel,and the mother of Moses, that marked the commencement of paintingscontaining all or nearly all female figures), "Christ at the Home ofMary and Martha," "The Return of the Holy Women," and "The FiveVirgins." Of "Christ and His Disciples on the Road to Bethany," one ofthe most remarkable of all the pictures for subdued coloring, thepainter says, "I have taken the tradition that Christ never spent a dayin Jerusalem, but at the close of day went to Bethany, returning to thecity of strife in the morning." Of "A Flight into Egypt" he says: "Nevershall I forget the magnificence of two Persian Jews that I once saw atRachel's Tomb; what a magnificent 'Abraham' either one of them wouldhave made! Nor do I forget a ride one stormy Christmas night toBethlehem. Dark clouds swept the moonlit skies and it took littleimagination to close one's eyes to the flight of time and see in thosehurrying travelers the crowds that hurried Bethlehemward on thatmemorable night of the Nativity, or to transpose the scene and see ineach hurrying group 'A Flight into Egypt.'" As to which one of all thesepictures excels the others critics are not in perfect agreement. "TheResurrection of Lazurus" is in subdued coloring, while "TheAnnunciation" is noted for its effects of light and shade. This latterpicture must in any case rank very high in any consideration of thepainter's work. It is a powerful por
trayal of the Virgin at the momentwhen she learns of her great mission.
Mr. Tanner has the very highest ideals for his art. These could hardlybe better stated than in his own words: "It has very often seemed to methat many painters of religious subjects (in our time) seem to forgetthat their pictures should be as much works of art (regardless of thesubject) as are other paintings with less holy subjects. To suppose thatthe fact of the religious painter having a more elevated subject thanhis brother artist makes it unnecessary for him to consider his pictureas an artistic production, or that he can be less thoughtful about acolor harmony, for instance, than he who selects any other subject,simply proves that he is less of an artist than he who gives the subjecthis best attention." Certainly, no one could ever accuse Henry Tanner ofinsincere workmanship. His whole career is an inspiration and achallenge to aspiring painters, and his work is a monument of sturdyendeavor and exalted achievement.