Portrait of Henry O. Tanner

Artist Thomas Eakins American, 1844 - 1916

Subject Henry Ossawa Tanner American, 1859 - 1937

Dateca. 1897

Place of OriginPhiladelphia, Pennsylvania, United States of America

MediumOil on canvas

DimensionsStretcher: 24 5/8 × 20 1/8 in. (62.5 × 51.1 cm)
Frame Dimensions: 29 5/8 x 26 x 2 1/4 in. (75.2 x 66 x 5.7 cm)

ClassificationsPaintings

Credit LineThe Hyde Collection Trust, 1952

Object number1971.16

On View

On view

Collections

American Paintings & Sculpture

SignedSigned LR: (in red) "Eakins".

InscribedOn verso of canvas, lower right: "Thomas Eakins" in ink.

MarkingsOn stretcher: paper label "28158". Paper label "No. 3929 Babcock Galleries". Paper label: "Bran?h H...Baltimore M.../Orters and manu.../..Plain, Ro....n, C.anvas,/.. and Arti.ts .. ly./S-/-F Artists'-". Paper label in script "Portrait/H.O. Tanner, artist/painter Thos. eakins/Lent by/Mrs. Thomas Eakins/1729 Mount Vernon Str-" Paper label in script "Loaned to Penna. Museum of Art/Portrait of artist E. (sic) O. Tanner/Painted by Thomas Eakins". In pencil on stretcher: "Box -2-15-18". On lining canvas: In red: "66-1929.1". In script: "923". In script: "Thomas Eakins". On frame: paper label: "Ubaldo Giugni/Antichita/Via dei Banchi N. 5 - Firenze/ No. Mr. Armand Pushman". Paper label fragment: ...255". In blue crayon: "2430". Numerous old exhibition labels on backing. Three removed during 1989 treatment now located in exhibtion history file.

DescriptionThomas Eakins, one of the best-known and influential American painters, presents a bust-length portrait of his friend and student, the painter Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937). Tanner, seated in a three-quarter pose, leans back thoughtfully in his chair. A strong light from our left illuminates his face so that it stands out before the neutral brown background. Eakins, termed an American Realist, also worked in photography and sculpture, and is famous for his naturalistic style. It, like his teaching at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, was based on studies from live models and even dissections. These studies informed the hundreds of portraits he painted, many of family or friends, as here.

Eakins’ career, however, was controversial, and he was dismissed from the Academy. Not only did he attend dissections, resulting in his famous “Gross Clinic” (1875), a painting rejected by the Art Gallery at the Centennial Exposition of 1876 and displayed instead at the U. S. Army Post Hospital, he also used nude models in classes attended by male and female students, and was accused of multiple sexual improprieties.

Tanner, born in Pittsburgh and trained in Philadelphia, spent most of his life in France. As the only African-American artist at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, he felt that racial discrimination in the United States suppressed his potential, so in 1891 moved to Paris, where he studied with an academic painter and produced largely Christian-themed religious paintings.

Text by Penny Howell Jolly, Professor Emerita of Art History, Skidmore College, July 2026
Exhibition History"Panama-Pacific Exposition," San Francisco, CA, 1915. No. 2965.

"Memorial Exhibition of the Works of the late Thomas Eakins," Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA, 1917.

"The Eighteenth Annual Exhibition of American Art", Detroit Institue of the Arts, Detroit, MI, Apr. 2- May 3, 1937.

"The Negro in the American Scene", Howard University, Washington D.C, Mar.- Apr. 1942.

"Memorial Exhibition of Paintings by Henry O. Tanner", Philadelphia Art Alliance, Philadelphia, PA, Oct. 2- Nov. 11, 1945.

"The Portrayal of the Negro in American Painting, 1710-1963", Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Brunswick, ME, May 15 - July 15, 1964.

"The Art of Henry O. Tanner," National Collection of Fine Art ,Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C, July 22 - Sept. 14, 1969; Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH, Sept. 30 - Nov. 2, 1969; McNay Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX, Dec. 28, 1969 - Jan. 31, 1970; Delgado Museum of Art, New orleans, LA, Feb. 20 - March 29, 1970; Museum of Art, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, PA, April 26 - May 31, 1970; Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Waltham, MA, Sept. 15 - Oct. 25, 1970.

"The Art of Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937) : From The Collection of the Museum of African Art/Frederick Douglass Institute, Washington, D.C.", The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, NY; Museum of African Art/Frederick Douglass Institute, Washington D.C; Studio Museum in Harlem, New York, 1972 (exhibition sponsored by Hyde Collection).

"Americans Abroad: Painters of the Victorian Era," San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA, Dec. 5, 1975- Jan. 10, 1976.

"Selections of 19th Century Afro-American Art," Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, June 18 - Aug. 1, 1976.

"Turn-of-the-Century America: Paintings, Graphics, Photographs, 1890-1910," Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY, June 30 - Oct. 2, 1977; St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, MO, Dec. 1, 1977 - Jan. 12, 1978; Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, WA, Feb. 2 - March 12, 1978; Oakland Museum, Oakland, CA, April 4 - May 28, 1978.

"Thomas Eakins: Artist of Philadelphia," Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, May 29 - Aug. 1, 1982; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA, Sept. 22 - Nov. 28, 1982.

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA, Dec. 1, 1986 - April 1, 1987.

"Facing History: The Black Image in American Art, 1710-1940," Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington D.C.; Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, 1990- 1991.

"Henry Ossawa Tanner", Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA; Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, MI; High Museum of Art, Atlanta, GA; M.H. deYoung Memorial Museum,San Francisco, CA, 1991-1992.

"Thomas Eakins (1844-1916) and the Heart of American Life," National Portrait Gallery, London, England, October 8, 1993 - Jan. 23, 1994.

"Focus on: Abbott Thayer," The Hyde Collection, July- Oct. 1996.

"America : The New World in Nineteenth Century Painting," Osterreichische Galerie Belvedere, Vienna, Austria, Mar. 17- June 20, 1999.

"Thomas Eakins, American Realist," Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA, Oct. 4, 2001- Jan. 6, 2002; Musee d'Orsay, Paris, France, Feb. 4 - May, 12, 2002; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY, June 18 - Sept. 15, 2002.

"Family Matters: American Impressionism and Realism," The Hyde Collection, Glens Falls, Apr. 27- July 27, 2003.

"Portraits of a People: Picturing African Americans in the Nineteenth Century," Addison Gallery of American Art, Phillips Academy, Jan. 14 - March 26, 2006; Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE, April 21 - July 16, 2006; Long Beach Museum of Art, Aug. 25 - Nov. 26, 2006.

"Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit," Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (organizer) Jan. 27-Apr. 14, 2012; Cincinnati Art Museum (May 26-Sept. 9, 2012); MFA Houston, Oct. 14-Jan. 6, 2013.

"Jewel City: Art from San Francisco's Panama-Pacific International Exposition," Oct. 17, 2015-Jan. 10, 2016, de Young Museum, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.ProvenancePhiladelphia, PA, Mrs. Thomas Eakins (1851 – 1938)
before 1937, New York, NY, Babcock Galleries, New York,
1937, Glens Falls, NY, Mrs. Charlotte P. Hyde
1952, Glens Falls, NY, The Hyde Collection Trust