American portraitists, realists, impressionists, and abstract artists that studied, lived, and worked in Paris, France during the late 19th and early 20th centuries wrote letters home to family and friends describing their lives there. One of these artists was Henry Ossawa Tanner, and here you will find letters dating from after he began studying in Paris in 1891, and then later, after he moved there permanently around 1900.
American portraitists, realists, impressionists, and abstract artists that studied, lived, and worked in Paris, France during the late 19th and early 20th centuries wrote letters home to family and friends describing their lives there. One of these artists was Henry Ossawa Tanner, and here you will find letters dating from the time after he began studying in Paris in 1891, and then later, after he moved there permanently around 1900.
African American painter Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937) mainly painted biblical scenes. In 1880 he enrolled in the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he studied under several art instructors, including Thomas Eakins. After a failed photography business and teaching briefly, he traveled to Paris in 1891 to study at the Académie Julian under Jean Joseph Benjamin-Constant and Jean-Paul Laurens. After returning to Philadelphia in late 1892, he painted many works depicting African American subjects. He returned to Paris in 1894, where his work began receiving favorable reviews, and Tanner began specializing in bible imagery and scenes. He traveled to Palestine in 1897 and 1898 to further his technique. Around 1899, Tanner began receiving praise in the US, and returned to live there a short time, but racist attitudes persisted, and he eventually moved back to Paris with his wife. He remained there the rest of his life, only occasionally returning to exhibit his works in the US.
Explore the fully digitized Henry Ossawa Tanner papers on the Archives of American Art website!
