Abraham's Oak | |
---|---|
Abraham's Oak Near Hebron | |
Artist | Henry Ossawa Tanner |
Year | 1905 |
Medium | Oil on canvas |
Movement | Impressionism |
Subject | Abraham, Oak of Mamre |
Dimensions | 54.4 cm× 72.8 cm(21 3/4 in× 28 3/4 in) |
Location | Smithsonian American Art Museum |
Accession | 1983.95.185 |
Abraham's Oak is a painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner, an American painter who lived in France, completed about 1905. [1] While Tanner is well known today for two paintings in the United States, The Banjo Lesson and The Thankful Poor , both about African-American families, the bulk of his artwork, including some of his most iconic paintings, were concerned with exploring biblical subjects. Abraham's Oak was supposed to be a place where Abraham pitched his tent and built an altar to God, who had promised the Land of Canaan for him and his children, and where he was visited by an angel. [2]
Tanner may have visited the famous oak during a trip to the Middle East. At the time of his visit, the tree was in serious decline, its trunk supported with props and mostly leafless. [1] However, Tanner collected at least one postcard of the tree, a painting by Johann Friedrich Perlberg and revisited the tree in memory, several years after a visit sometime in 1897-1899. [1] It would number among many paintings of trees in the "nocturnal light." [1]
The painting is an example of Tanner's frequent painting of subjects in the dim light of nighttime. Other similar works in which he used the technique to paint evening landscapes include Le Touquet , The Wise Men, Christ and his Disciples on the Road to Bethany , and The Good Shepherd . [3]
Over his lifetime Tanner was influenced by the painting styles he encountered, and produced works with characteristics of "Realism, Symbolism, Impressionism, and Orientalism." [4] Sometimes he blended these; The Banjo Lesson is overall a work of realism or French genre painting applied to American subjects, but with an impressionistic use of light from multiple sides and in the painting's background. [5] Similarly, The Thankful Poor also uses elements of impressionism blended into a French genre or American Realism artwork. [6]
In the case of Abraham's Oak, the work can be described as impressionist, focusing on color, form and light and dismissing detail. [7] The viewer is shown a tree under a moonlit sky with two people walking in the moonlight. But that is the overall impression; there is no detail. Color and generalized shapes (the painting's forms) and the way the scene is lit create the impression.
Abraham's Oak is also a symbolic painting in which ideas themselves are expressed through that impressionism. [7] Newswriter Stephanie Brommer summarized the mix of symbolism with impressionistic technique in Abraham's Oak, saying the painting "radiates a mystical peace and spirituality with the moon's pale light and the symbolism of the oak, a majestic reminder of Abraham's years in Canaan centuries earlier." [8]
The painting was displayed as Abraham's Oak Near Hebron, at the 1905 exhibition of the Chicago Art Institute. [9]
In 1909, the painting was part of an exhibition of 33 of Tanner's religious works at the American Art Galleries in New York. [10]
Tanner had been entering Salons and competitions in France and the United States and won many awards. [10] However, rather than keep ownership he sold his paintings as income. [11] [10] He had never had an exhibition of his major works together in America, because these were held by museums and private collectors. [12] [10] For his exhibition, he was loaned paintings by their owners.
Among those lending artworks were Atherton Curtis and Rodman Wanamaker, friends and patrons to Tanner. Each had several of his paintings. Abraham's Oak was owned by Curtis. [12]
Other works in the exhibition included Christ and Nicodemus (owned by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art), Christ at the Home of Mary and Martha (owned by the Carnegie Institute), Judas Covenanting with the High Priests , The Return of the Holy Woman , Mary Pondered All These Things in Her Heart, and Christ Washing the Feet of the Disciples (owned by Wanamaker), Christ on to Road to Bethany , He Vanished Out of Their Sight , and On the Road to Emmaus (owned by Curtis). [12] [13]
The Good Shepherd , The Wise Men, The Flight Into Egypt, The Hiding of Moses , Mary and Behold, The Bridegroom Cometh were also named. [13] [14]
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John Henry Twachtman was an American painter best known for his impressionist landscapes, though his painting style varied widely through his career. Art historians consider Twachtman's style of American Impressionism to be among the more personal and experimental of his generation. He was a member of "The Ten," a loosely-allied group of American artists dissatisfied with professional art organizations, who banded together in 1898 to exhibit their works as a stylistically unified group.
Henry Ossawa Tanner was an American artist who spent much of his career in France. He became the first African-American painter to gain international acclaim. Tanner moved to Paris, France, in 1891 to study at the Académie Julian and gained acclaim in French artistic circles. In 1923, the French government elected Tanner chevalier of the Legion of Honor.
Théophile "Théo" van Rysselberghe was a Belgian neo-impressionist painter, who played a pivotal role in the European art scene at the turn of the twentieth century.
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The Banjo Lesson is an 1893 oil painting by African-American artist Henry Ossawa Tanner. It depicts two African-Americans in a humble domestic setting: an old black man is teaching a young boy – possibly his grandson – to play the banjo.
The Thankful Poor is an 1894 genre painting by the African-American painter Henry Ossawa Tanner. It depicts two African Americans praying at a table, and shares common themes with Tanner's other paintings from the 1890s including The Banjo Lesson (1893) and The Young Sabot Maker (1895). The work is based on photographs Tanner had taken, and is influenced by his views on education and race, which were in turn derived from those of his father, Benjamin Tucker Tanner, and the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The painting is considered a milestone in African-American art, notably for its countering of racial stereotypes.
The Annunciation is an 1898 painting by the African-American painter Henry Ossawa Tanner. It depicts the biblical scene of the Annunciation, where the archangel Gabriel visits Mary to announce that she will give birth to Jesus. The painting is held by the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The Bagpipe Lesson is a painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner, completed in late 1893 and displayed at the World's Columbian Exposition and at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts 63rd annual exhibition, held from December 18, 1893 to February 24, 1894. The painting was begun by Tanner during his first summer in France, during a trip to Brittany. He finished the work in Philadelphia.
Sarah Elizabeth Tanner was active as a missionary worker and a religious leader in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Woman From the West Indies is a painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner painted about 1891 in Brittany, France, during his first or second summer in France. The portrait is unsigned but is attributed to Tanner based on the way it was painted, compared to Tanner's known works from 1891-1893. Those examining the painting looked for patterns in the way the artist used color, the brush strokes, and the stylistic choices in how light itself is shown in the painting.
Salomé is a painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner, showing the princess Salome from the Bible, who danced before her stepfather Herod Antipas, and who demanded the head of John the Baptist as a reward for her performance. Tanner painted Salome as part of his Christian-themed paintings.
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Christ at the home of Mary and Martha is a painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner of the New Testament episode known as Christ in the House of Martha and Mary. It was completed about 1905 and permanently in the collections of the Carnegie Museum of Art in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Tanner spoke of the painting as having been particularly challenging to paint. The painting was purchased in 1907 by the museum. It was also exhibited in Pittsburgh in 1907 and New York in 1908.
Nicodemus Visiting Christ is a painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner, made in Jerusalem in 1899 during the artist's second visit to what was then Palestine. The painting is biblical, featuring Nicodemus talking privately to Christ in the evening, and is an example of Tanner's nocturnal light paintings, in which the world is shown in night light.
"Abraham's Oak," under which tradition says an angel visited the patriarch...
"Abraham's Oak," under which tradition says an angel visited the patriarch..."The Good Shepherd" is one of these moonlight subjects. Between two olive trees with gnarled trunks, the Shepherd comes with his flock. You see the dark forms of a man and of sheep emerging from a mysterious light with which the back of the picture is flooded..."The Wise Men, " "Abraham's Oak,"..."Christ On the Road to Bethany," and "The Flight Into Egypt" all have the same quality, the Sands impressive beauty.
...his willingness to continually evolve his artistic abilities with an open mind led him to consistently expand his styles and subject matters. Over the course of his career, he dabbled in Realism, Symbolism, Impressionism, and Orientalism...
His style sits somewhere between Realism and Impressionism...There are two light sources, neither of which is visible....the couple is surrounded by light. It illuminates the floor around them and the wall behind, so they stand out, dark, but clear and distinct, even if the Realist attention to naturalistic detail is softened by an impressionistic blurring of form.
While this work highlights the Realism ...the sway that modern Paris was beginning to have on the artist. ... in both the softening and loosening of the brushstrokes used to render certain items as well as the importance of light...
Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937) combined French Impressionist color, light, form and technique with Symbolist expression of ideas through form in his work.
It was with comparative difficulty that Mr, Tanner, like other artists whose works had passed from their ownership, was able to assemble a coherent and adequate collection...he was compelled to depend upon the good will of his patrons in America, owners who, In the years past, have enhanced their galleries with his works and have treasured them with a careful guardianship
Tanner has found it impossible to give any private exhibition of his paintings much as the idea pleases him. His canvases are sold as soon as finished — sometimes before.
The Good Shepherd"... "Abraham's Oak," ..."The Good Shepherd"..."The Wise Men, " "Abraham's Oak,"..."Christ On the Road to Bethany,"... "The Flight Into Egypt"..."The Return of the Holy Woman"with Calvary in the distance..."Christ and Nicodemus