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. His painting Daniel in the Lions' Den was accepted into the 1896 Salon, the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Tanner's Resurrection of Lazarus was purchased by the French government after winning the third-place medal at the 1897 Salon. In 1923, the French government elected Tanner chevalier of the Legion of Honor.
Christ in the House of Martha and Mary is an oil-on-canvas painting from Spanish artist Diego Velázquez, dating to his Seville period. Housed in the National Gallery, London, United Kingdom, it was painted in 1618, shortly after he completed his apprenticeship with Pacheco. At this time, Velázquez was experimenting with the potential of the bodegones, a form of genre painting set in taverns or kitchens which was frequently used to relate scenes of contemporary Spain to themes and stories from the Bible. Often they contained depictions of people working with food and drink.
William Degouve de Nuncques was a Belgian painter, born 28 February 1867 and died 1 March 1935. He was associated with the symbolist movement although he is occasionally referred to as a postimpressionist. He is best known for his nocturnal landscapes, inundated with strange atmosphere and at times visionary subjects. He continued to paint compelling landscapes into the early decades of the 20th century but the overt symbolist qualities slowly dissipated from his work after 1900.
The Ecumenical Council is a surrealist painting by Spanish artist Salvador Dalí completed in 1960. It is one of his masterpieces, taking two years to complete and very large at 299.7 by 254 centimetres. The painting is a complex assemblage of art historical references and religious scenes emphasizing Catholic symbolism.
Anna Massey Lea Merritt was an American artist from Philadelphia who lived and worked in Great Britain for most of her life. A printmaker and painter of portraits, landscapes, and religious scenes, Merritt's art was influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites. Merritt was a professional artist for most of her adult life, "living by her brush" before her brief marriage to Henry Merritt and after his death.
The Sin is an 1893 painting by the German artist Franz Stuck. Stuck created twelve known versions of the painting. Some of these can be viewed at the Neue Pinakothek, in Munich, the National Gallery, in Berlin, the Galleria di arte Moderna, in Palermo, the Frye Art Museum, in Seattle, and at the Villa Stuck, in Munich, where it is enshrined in the artist's Künstleraltar. It depicts the nude Eve with a large serpent wrapped around her body. In the upper right corner is a bright field, while the rest of the surroundings are dark.
The Young Sabot Maker is an oil-on-canvas painting made by the American artist Henry Ossawa Tanner in 1895. The painting was accepted for the 1895 Paris Salon and was Tanner's second Salon-entered painting.
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.
Robert Douglass Jr. was an African-American artist and leading activist from Philadelphia.
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.
Abraham's Oak is a painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner, an American painter who lived in France, completed about 1905. 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 alter to God, who had promised the Land of Canaan for him and his children, and where he was visited by an angel.
The Resurrection of Lazarus is a painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner entered into the Paris Salon in 1897 and winning a third place medal. During his lifetime, this was the painting for which he was most known, his "masterwork". Since his death in 1937, secular tastes have pushed The Banjo Lesson to the top place in public esteem. The work was purchased by the French government for display in its Luxemburg museum. Today the painting is held by the Musée d'Orsay.
Christ at the home of Mary and Martha is a painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner 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.
