“The Annunciation.” Henry Ossawa Tanner, American (active France), 1859 - 1937
As we all are opening our eyes to the Black Lives Matter experience in the United States. I thought I would share one of my all-time favorite paintings hanging in the Philadelphia Museum of Art.
The Philadelphia Museum of art is my favorite place to visit in Philadelphia. It’s big, it’s beautiful and you just cannot beat the experience of being greeted by the brass sculpture of Diana pointing her bow and arrow at the top of the museum’s grand staircase!
One of my all-time favorite paintings is the museum’s “The Annunciation” by Henry Ossawa Tanner. I love this painting! The light, the color, the composition, the magnificent folds of fabric, and Mary, depicted as an ordinary young woman in ordinary clothing, learning her fate.
Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859 - 1937) was an African American Artist born in Pittsburgh, PA. In 1880 he enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art in Philadelphia and studied under Thomas Eakins.
In 1891, Tanner's life took a dramatic turn with a visit to Europe. In Paris, France, Tanner discovered a culture that seemed to be light years ahead of America in race relations.
Tanner entered “The Annunciation” in the 1898 Paris Salon exhibition, after which it was bought for the Philadelphia Museum of Art in 1899, making it his first work to enter an American museum.
Free from the prejudicial confines that defined his life in his native country, Tanner made Paris his home, living out the rest of his life there.
I hope you enjoy Henry Ossawa Tanner’s painting of Mary and the Annunciation. It’s a mesmerizing painting. When the Philadelphia Museum of Art opens its galleries to the public and you are in the Philly area - please visit and look for this painting. You will love it!