Henry Ossawa Tanner

Henry Ossawa Tanner (June 21, 1859 - May 25, 1937) was an African American artist best known for his style of painting. He was the first African American painter to gain international acclaim.

Education

In 1879 Tanner enrolled at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts in Philadelphia. His decision to attend the school came at an exciting time in the history of artistic institutional training. Art academies had long relied on tired notions of study devoted almost entirely to plaster cast studies and anatomy lectures. This changed drastically with the addition Thomas Eakins as “Professor of Drawing and Painting” ...