1859-1937
Tanner passed his early childhood in Washington, D. C., where his father, a minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, worked in several churches and schools. In 1866 the family moved to Philadelphia where Tanner attended the public schools. By 1872 the young man had decided to become an artist. However, he worked in a family friend's flour business until his fragile health broke down. While he recuperated in the Adirondacks and then in Florida, he sketched and painted.
Tanner entered the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Art, Philadelpia, in 1880, and remained two years as a student under Thomas Eakins. Some stonger than usual bond must have been established between them, for twenty years later, Eakins would paint, and keep, a portrait of Tanner (Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, New York). Tanner remained in Philadelphia for another six years, trying unsuccessfully to establish his career; occasionally he did sell drawings and prints to magazines. His works were exhibited in Pennsylvania Academy shows, and in the Academy annual exhibitions of 1885, 1886, and 1887. In 1888 he moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where he opened a photography studio. Although this venture failed, Tanner remained in Atlanta through 1890, teaching drawing to faculty members and painting portraits at Clark University.
Financed largely by the patronage of Bishop Joseph Crane Hartzell, a trustee of Clark, Tanner went to Paris in 1891. He enrolled in the Acad‚mie Julian, where his principal teachers were Jean Joseph Benjamin-Constant and Jean Paul Laurens. He attended the Julian well into the 1890s.
Tanner's first mature works were genre scenes with rural Afro-American subjects. It was a work of this type that was, in 1894, his first to be accepted in a Salon. However, he soon after turned to the Biblical themes which would preoccupy him for the rest of his life. Although Tanner's approach to the construction of Biblical subjects was aligned with long-standing European traditions, the individual spirituality of his works was recognized and appreciated by contemporaries. Rodman Wanamaker, a wealthy Philadelphia businessman living in Paris, financed the artist's trips to Egypt and Palestine in 1897 and 1898. Tanner had several times had his works accepted for the Salon; his contribution of 1899, Christ and Nicodemus on a Rooftop, was shown the same year at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where it won the Lippincott prize, and was purchased and was purchased for the collection.
By the turn of the century, Tanner's work was regularly winning major prizes; its forms were also was growing increasingly simplified, largely through the use of a more limited palette and glazing techniques, and its content increasingly spiritual. The government of France purchased his Disciples at Emmaus in 1906, and he was made a Chavalier of the Legion of Honor in 1923. He received medals at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo of 1901, at the Saint Louis Exposition of 1904, and the San Francisco Exposition of 1915. A one-man show of his paintings was mounted at the American Art Galleries, New York in 1908. Tanner traveled widely, making several trips to England, the Near East, and Africa, but, despite his acclaim in America, Tanner visited infrequently, preferring the more liberal atmosphere of both Paris and Normandy, where he had acquired a farmhouse, in 1903.
Tanner entered the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Art, Philadelpia, in 1880, and remained two years as a student under Thomas Eakins. Some stonger than usual bond must have been established between them, for twenty years later, Eakins would paint, and keep, a portrait of Tanner (Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, New York). Tanner remained in Philadelphia for another six years, trying unsuccessfully to establish his career; occasionally he did sell drawings and prints to magazines. His works were exhibited in Pennsylvania Academy shows, and in the Academy annual exhibitions of 1885, 1886, and 1887. In 1888 he moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where he opened a photography studio. Although this venture failed, Tanner remained in Atlanta through 1890, teaching drawing to faculty members and painting portraits at Clark University.
Financed largely by the patronage of Bishop Joseph Crane Hartzell, a trustee of Clark, Tanner went to Paris in 1891. He enrolled in the Acad‚mie Julian, where his principal teachers were Jean Joseph Benjamin-Constant and Jean Paul Laurens. He attended the Julian well into the 1890s.
Tanner's first mature works were genre scenes with rural Afro-American subjects. It was a work of this type that was, in 1894, his first to be accepted in a Salon. However, he soon after turned to the Biblical themes which would preoccupy him for the rest of his life. Although Tanner's approach to the construction of Biblical subjects was aligned with long-standing European traditions, the individual spirituality of his works was recognized and appreciated by contemporaries. Rodman Wanamaker, a wealthy Philadelphia businessman living in Paris, financed the artist's trips to Egypt and Palestine in 1897 and 1898. Tanner had several times had his works accepted for the Salon; his contribution of 1899, Christ and Nicodemus on a Rooftop, was shown the same year at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where it won the Lippincott prize, and was purchased and was purchased for the collection.
By the turn of the century, Tanner's work was regularly winning major prizes; its forms were also was growing increasingly simplified, largely through the use of a more limited palette and glazing techniques, and its content increasingly spiritual. The government of France purchased his Disciples at Emmaus in 1906, and he was made a Chavalier of the Legion of Honor in 1923. He received medals at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo of 1901, at the Saint Louis Exposition of 1904, and the San Francisco Exposition of 1915. A one-man show of his paintings was mounted at the American Art Galleries, New York in 1908. Tanner traveled widely, making several trips to England, the Near East, and Africa, but, despite his acclaim in America, Tanner visited infrequently, preferring the more liberal atmosphere of both Paris and Normandy, where he had acquired a farmhouse, in 1903.
