Henry Ossawa Tanner

Henry Ossawa Tanner was a pioneering Black American painter who found the recognition abroad that was denied him at home. Born in Pittsburgh in 1859, the son of a minister, he studied in Philadelphia before moving to France, where race was less of a barrier to his career. There he won acclaim and awards that had been out of reach in the United States.

He is famous for a tender early painting, The Banjo Lesson, showing an old man teaching a child to play, and later for glowing, deeply felt religious scenes bathed in soft light. His success opened doors for later Black artists. Tanner is now honored as one of the most accomplished American painters of his generation and a trailblazer in the history of American art.