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拍品专文
Henry Ossawa Tanner was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1859 as the son of a former slave and Episcopal bishop and became one of the first African American artists to achieve international acclaim. He studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts under Thomas Eakins, and, in 1891, Tanner moved to Paris, where he would live for the rest of his life. Inspired by the architecture found on his travels in Tangiers and Cairo, as well as that of his new home in Paris, Tanner’s stunning nocturnes demonstrate his fascination with the ephemeral nuances and varied illuminations of light. The present work is a hauntingly beautiful amalgamation of Tanner’s skill as both a religious and historical painter, drenched in a blue moonlight that places it among the most accomplished of his nocturnes. Included in the seminal retrospective, Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit, circulating to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, the Cincinnati Art Museum and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Home of Jeanne D’Arc demonstrates the best of Tanner’s ability.
The present work depicts the birthplace of French heroine and saint, Joan of Arc, located in Domrémy-la-Pucelle, which was used as an American Red Cross hospital during World War I. Upon the war’s outbreak, Tanner struggled to paint. In 1914, he wrote: “Soon you can work say some of my friends—but how can I? What right have I to do, what right to be comfortable?” (as quoted in Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit, p. 39) Painted the year of the war’s end, this peaceful scene, complete with the illuminated doorway, suggests a light at the end of the war, offering a sense of hope and signaling a reinvigoration of Tanner’s artistic spirit. Here, “A robed figure stands near the brightly illuminated entrance to the house as if beckoning the American soldiers to enter. In this work, Tanner has combined an anecdotal scene of French village life during World War I with a timeless visionary view of a popular pilgrimage site. In his paintings of this period, Tanner excelled in merging the sacred and secular, especially in nocturnal paintings suffused with deep purple and blue hues. Near this house was the military hospital where Tanner worked, growing vegetables for American soldiers, and this calm nocturne suggests a moment of repose and inspiration for the artist and for the soldiers he tended amid the harsh deprivations of wartime.” (A.O. Marley, ed., Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit, exhibition catalogue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2012, p. 40) Indeed, the present work offers a hopeful tone that starkly contrasts Tanner’s artistic outlook at the onset of war.
A triumph of Tanner’s oeuvre, Home of Jeanne D’Arc masterfully combines the historical and contemporary. Particularly rare, as Tanner painted very little during the war years, the present work demonstrates a new hope for the artist, perhaps encouraged by his volunteer efforts with the Red Cross. Tanner beautifully captures the complex mixture of fear and hope that encompassed the world during the Great War, inspiring the many artists that followed him. As Dewey F. Mosby writes, “The life of Henry Ossawa Tanner...was an inspiration and a challenge to aspiring painters, and his work a monument of sturdy endeavor and exalted achievement." (Henry Ossawa Tanner, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1991, p. 251)
The present work depicts the birthplace of French heroine and saint, Joan of Arc, located in Domrémy-la-Pucelle, which was used as an American Red Cross hospital during World War I. Upon the war’s outbreak, Tanner struggled to paint. In 1914, he wrote: “Soon you can work say some of my friends—but how can I? What right have I to do, what right to be comfortable?” (as quoted in Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit, p. 39) Painted the year of the war’s end, this peaceful scene, complete with the illuminated doorway, suggests a light at the end of the war, offering a sense of hope and signaling a reinvigoration of Tanner’s artistic spirit. Here, “A robed figure stands near the brightly illuminated entrance to the house as if beckoning the American soldiers to enter. In this work, Tanner has combined an anecdotal scene of French village life during World War I with a timeless visionary view of a popular pilgrimage site. In his paintings of this period, Tanner excelled in merging the sacred and secular, especially in nocturnal paintings suffused with deep purple and blue hues. Near this house was the military hospital where Tanner worked, growing vegetables for American soldiers, and this calm nocturne suggests a moment of repose and inspiration for the artist and for the soldiers he tended amid the harsh deprivations of wartime.” (A.O. Marley, ed., Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit, exhibition catalogue, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 2012, p. 40) Indeed, the present work offers a hopeful tone that starkly contrasts Tanner’s artistic outlook at the onset of war.
A triumph of Tanner’s oeuvre, Home of Jeanne D’Arc masterfully combines the historical and contemporary. Particularly rare, as Tanner painted very little during the war years, the present work demonstrates a new hope for the artist, perhaps encouraged by his volunteer efforts with the Red Cross. Tanner beautifully captures the complex mixture of fear and hope that encompassed the world during the Great War, inspiring the many artists that followed him. As Dewey F. Mosby writes, “The life of Henry Ossawa Tanner...was an inspiration and a challenge to aspiring painters, and his work a monument of sturdy endeavor and exalted achievement." (Henry Ossawa Tanner, exhibition catalogue, New York, 1991, p. 251)