The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Tanner, Henry Ossawa
1859–1937, American painter, b. Pittsburgh; son of a bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He studied with Eakins in Philadelphia and in Paris. Tanner made many trips to Palestine to obtain background for his religious paintings. His work is naturalistic, and the religious subjects especially are strongly rendered. Among his paintings are Christ and Nicodemus (Pa. Acad. of the Fine Arts); Two Disciples at the Tomb (Art Inst., Chicago); The Banjo Lesson (Hampton Inst., Hampton, Va.).
