Mary (La Sainte-Marie), c. 1898
Oil on canvas
34 1/8 x 42 5/8 in. (86.7 x 108.3 cm)
La Salle University Art Museum
In this rendering of the Virgin Mary with the Christ child, Mary appears melancholy and lost in thought. The infant is almost completely covered by a shroud-like cloth, suggesting a foreshadowing of Jesus’ death. Tanner paid careful attention to details studied first-hand in Jerusalem, where he first traveled in 1898. Tanner was painstaking when it came to detail and took back home with him sketches which he had made whilst in Jerusalem, where he first travelled in 1898.
The model for Mary was newlywed Tanner’s Swedish-American wife (See below). More on this painting
Henry Ossawa Tanner (June 21, 1859 — May 25, 1937) was an American artist and the first African-American painter to gain international acclaim. Tanner moved to Paris, France, in 1891 to study, and continued to live there after being accepted in French artistic circles. His painting entitled Daniel in the Lions’ Den (See below) was accepted into the 1896 Salon, the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris…
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Zaidan Gallery 