Viewing page 9 of 14

This transcription has been completed. Contact us with corrections.

THE CRISIS

that all other Negroes face—general discrimination in housing, jobs, education and all the rest. All this may affect him as an artist but I believe he is always trying to raise himself above it. Very simply, he wants to be judged and treated as a man and as an artist, nothing less."

I had already heard of the reasons why Mr. Tanner had left America and had established himself as an expatriate in Paris. I sensed his appreciation of what I had just said about America and felt that it rang a bell with him. But he seemed not too anxious to pursue this aspect of our conversation further, I don't know why. Inasmuch as I was there, in his presence, he seemed to focus his attention directly upon me. Perhaps it was an effort to discover who I really was. Then he asked a simple, direct question:

"Who is your real artist-god?"

I replied, "Cézanne, whose works I have seen so frequently in Paris."

After some reflection, he spoke again: "All right; a real master——space, color, light, form——all of it. He is in the tradition yet he is a real innovator. You have made a good choice."

We found ourselves at a window, looking out, saying nothing. We returned to our chairs, smiling warmly and understandingly at each other; a most eloquent silence, truly.

The hour was growing late; I was tired and I'm certain Mr. Tanner was also. I arose, as did he. I gathered up the folio, thanked him heartily for a most unforgettable meeting, and almost in unison we bade each other "au revoir" with a strong shake of the hands. I never saw him again. I do not recall how I got back into the town nor when I took the next train back to Paris.

I do recall the lasting impression he had made upon me during that visit. I knew that the image of H. O. Tanner as a man, artist and scholar would always remain with me.

IN Paris later that spring I made frequent trips back to the Luxembourg to reexamine his masterpiece there. In subsequent years I had occasional opportunities to see other works by Tanner in several American museums, particularly in Fairmount Park in Philadelphia, as well as in various private collections. I was convinced then, and I became increasingly more convinced, that he was more than simply the greatest Negro painter of his or of any other era, as he had often been called.

The critical reassessment of Henry O. Tanner's work, which is inevitably resulting from the current revival of interest in it, has already begun to rightfully establish this master as one of the few truly great painters, regardless of race, to have come out of America.