Henry Ossawa Tanner and Thomas Eakins

Another June birthday artist is Henry Ossawa Tanner (June 21, 1859 - 1937), who painted such well-known works as The Banjo Lesson and The Annunciation. Tanner was born in Pittsburgh and raised in Philadelphia, and he later attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts at the time when painter, sculptor and photographer Thomas Eakins was a professor at the school.

Eakins, an exacting realist, would later become Director of the Pennsylvania Academy; his teaching methods were innovative and exciting, and while he wasn‘t much of a nurturer, he generally tried to urge his students to reach their fullest potential. Eakins would eventually find himself in trouble for his sometimes too free-spirited behavior and insistence that his female students be allowed to sketch and observe nude male models -- instead of just male models wearing loincloths (presumably so that the delicate modesties of such female students would not be offended).

Before Eakins left the Pennsylvania Academy, however, he taught Henry Ossawa Tanner, and even though Tanner was then rather shy and reserved, Eakins liked him very much and considered him one of his favorite students. And while Eakins confined his own color concerns to the painter's palette, Tanner did experience prejudice from some of his fellow artists-in-training -- most likely due to the fact that Tanner was the only African-American enrolled in their class.

Tanner ultimately made his way to France, where he would remain for most of his career. He found a certain freedom from racial issues in Europe, along with the chance to focus more on his work and less on having to always justify his skin tone and talents. Tanner’s autobiography, The Story of an Artist’s Life, is well-worth reading to understand the issues that he faced as an African-American artist and his own quietly determined will to succeed.

Pictured below is Thomas Eakins’ portrait of Henry Ossawa Tanner, painted in 1902.