The Thankful Poor

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The Thankful Poor
ArtistHenry Ossawa Tanner
Year1894
Mediumoil on canvas
Dimensions90.3 cm × 112.5 cm (35.6 in × 44.3 in)
OwnerCamille O. and William H. Cosby

The Thankful Poor is an 1894 painting by African-American painter Henry Ossawa Tanner. It is a genre painting of two African Americans praying, and it shares common themes with Tanner's other paintings including The Banjo Lesson (1893) and The Young Sabot Maker (1895). The Thankful Poor has been deemed a "milestone" in art,[1] notably for its subject treatment that counters African-American stereotypes. The painting was discovered in a storage closet in 1970, before entering the private collection of Camille and Bill Cosby in 1981.

Description

The painting depicts an old man and a young boy – perhaps a grandfather and his grandson[2] – at a table, praying before their meal. To the left, the scene's only source of light comes from the window with sheer curtains behind the old man.[3] The old man sits on a high-backed chair with his elbows on the table and his hands clasped before his face in prayer. Across from the old man, the boy sits on a low bench or crate, with one hand held to his head in an effort to emulate the man's prayerful pose.[4][5] The table between the two subjects is set with a tablecloth, two white plates and cups, a large white pitcher, cutlery, and small portions of food.[3][5]

On the reverse of the painting is an early study for Tanner's 1895 painting The Young Sabot Maker.[6]

Analysis

Though carrying religious undertones, The Thankful Poor does not portray a biblical subject like Tanner's later religious paintings, such as The Annunciation (1898)[7] and The Good Shepherd (1902–1903).[1] Rather, it is a genre painting of a daily ritual experience for lower-class African Americans. In The Thankful Poor, Tanner chose to capture the hardships of African-American life through a realistic scene.[8] This "inside look" into an ordinary moment[9] depicts its subjects with a level of dignity and self-possession that is almost extraordinary for Tanner's time.[2] A similar realism and respect for its subjects[2] can be found in The Banjo Lesson (another genre painting and Tanner's most famous work), which was completed a year before The Thankful Poor and portrays a young boy being taught to play the banjo by an old man.[10] The two works also share a domestic setting and an emphasis on intergenerational relationships. These similarities suggest that Tanner intended for the two paintings to be a pair that "should be read together".[11]

Tanner's stylistic choice for his genre paintings marks a clear break from the derogatory caricatures of African Americans typical of the late 19th century.[8][12] Popular representations of the time often mocked African-American religious practice as tribal and superstitious,[4] in contrast to a supposedly more advanced, introspective, and contemplative white religiosity.[2] However, The Thankful Poor's calm portrayal of everyday Christian devotions in a modest setting challenges contemporary perceptions of black religiosity as overly emotional and inferior.[2] In addition, the painting's subject may reflect the particular reverence for Thankgiving Day in the African Methodist Episcopal Church,[4][13] in which Tanner's father Benjamin Tucker Tanner was a bishop.[14][15]

The composition possibly draws inspiration from the 1891 painting Le Repas en Famille (The Family Meal) by Elizabeth Nourse, which shares a similar setting to The Thankful Poor and won a gold medal at the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago, Illinois.[13][A] There are also clear parallels in European art, such as Jan Steen's 1660 painting The Prayer before the Meal.[13]

According to art historian Albert Boime, the study of The Young Sabot Maker on the reverse of The Thankful Poor was no coincidence. He suggests that there is a thematic continuity between the two paintings, evidenced by the presence of an elder and a youth in both works.[18] Though the final version of The Young Sabot Maker does not feature African Americans like The Thankful Poor, Boime notes that in the final study of the former, both the apprentice and the master "appear to be of African-American descent".[19] Similarities continue in the underlying theme of education, which The Young Sabot Maker shares with both The Thankful Poor[6] and The Banjo Lesson.[20] Namely, the religious education observed in the The Thankful Poor's depiction of a young boy imitating his elder praying[4] can be traced to the educational values of Tanner's parents, who both graduated from Avery College and went on to found schools.[14] Tanner was also influenced by family friend and educator Booker T. Washington, with whom Tanner shared the belief that skills should be communicated from one generation to another.[21]

History and reception

The DuSable Museum of African American History, Chicago, Illinois

The Thankful Poor and the earlier The Banjo Lesson both seem to be based on the same photographed models which Tanner himself shot before moving to Paris, France in 1891.[11][B] Both paintings were made after Tanner returned temporarily to the United States in 1893 to recuperate after suffering from typhoid fever[22] and before he moved back to Paris in 1894.[23][24] Prior to completing The Thankful Poor in 1894, Tanner made a study for the painting that is now part of the DuSable Museum of African American History collection on Google Arts & Culture.[25]

The completed painting was exhibited with The Banjo Lesson in the spring of 1894 at the James S. Earle and Sons Gallery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.[26] On Tanner's return to Paris in 1894, The Banjo Lesson became his first accepted work at the Paris Salon[27] where it received an honorable place.[3] Many, including family friend and scholar William Sanders Scarborough, expected Tanner to continue counteracting black stereotypes through his art. Scarborough himself commented, "...many of the friends of the race sincerely hoped that a portrayer of Negro Life by a Negro artist had arisen indeed...to counterbalance...the most extravagantly absurd and grotesque."[27][28] Despite his success and support, Tanner turned away from paintings of African Americans, finding more critical and commercial success with landscape paintings and biblical scenes.[29] Thus, The Thankful Poor is Tanner's last known genre scene depicting African-American subjects.[24][27]

In 1970, The Thankful Poor was discovered in a storage closet in the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf by headmaster Dr. Philip Bellefleur; it was given on loan to the Philadelphia Museum of Art before being sold in 1981 to comedian Bill Cosby and his wife Camille.[30] The painting was purchased by the Cosbys' art curator David Driskell at a Sotheby's auction for $287,000 – a record sum at the time for a painting by an African American.[31][C] As of 2014, the painting remains in the Camille O. and William H. Cosby Collection of African American Art.[32] In 2016, the painting was featured in an exhibition called the DuSable Masterworks Collection at the DuSable Museum in Chicago, Illinois. The exhibit celebrated the works of African-American artists like Tanner from the late 19th to the mid-20th centuries.[33]

According to the catalog of a 1991 exhibition of Tanner's work held at the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the painting's "dignified portrayal of the old man and boy at prayer...transcends any other image of black Americans in American art".[34] For others, Tanner's "intimate" and "human" depiction of his subjects in The Thankful Poor has led the painting to be described as a "milestone" in the history of African-American art.[1]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Tanner could have seen Nourse's painting when he visited Chicago in 1893 to deliver a lecture at a nearby congress for African Americans.[16][17]
  2. ^ Tanner most likely took his model photographs while he was running a photography shop from 1889 to 1890 in Atlanta, Georgia.[11]
  3. ^ This record amount was surpassed in 1998 when Jean-Michel Basquiat's Self-Portrait was sold for $3.3 million at a Christie's auction.[31]

References

Notes

  1. ^ a b c "Spiritualities". Conversations. Smithsonian National Museum of African Art. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  2. ^ a b c d e Wilson 1992, p. 40.
  3. ^ a b c Alexander-Minter 2005, p. 130.
  4. ^ a b c d Boime 1993, p. 424.
  5. ^ a b Wilson 1992, pp. 39–40.
  6. ^ a b Taylor 2020, p. 37.
  7. ^ "The Annunciation". Philadelphia Museum of Art. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  8. ^ a b "'Real' Experiences and Upended Stereotypes: Henry Ossawa Tanner's Black Genre Scenes". Princeton University. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  9. ^ Wilson 1992, p. 45.
  10. ^ Khalid, Farisa. "Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Banjo Lesson". Smarthistory. Retrieved February 11, 2021.
  11. ^ a b c Taylor 2020, p. 27.
  12. ^ Mann, Lisa. "Diversity in White House Art: Henry Ossawa Tanner". The White House Historical Association. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  13. ^ a b c Taylor 2020, p. 28.
  14. ^ a b Taylor 2020, p. 29.
  15. ^ Wilson 1992, p. 35.
  16. ^ Woods 2011, p. 894.
  17. ^ Paddon, Anna R.; Turner, Sally (1995). "African Americans and the World's Columbian Exposition". Illinois Historical Journal. 88 (1). University of Illinois Press: 34. Retrieved February 14, 2021.
  18. ^ Boime 1993, pp. 424, 426.
  19. ^ Boime 1993, p. 426.
  20. ^ Boime 1993, p. 423.
  21. ^ Taylor 2020, p. 30.
  22. ^ Wilson 1992, p. 38.
  23. ^ Taylor 2020, p. 25.
  24. ^ a b Pinder, Kymberly N. (1997). ""Our Father, God; our Brother, Christ; or are We Bastard Kin?": Images of Christ in African American Painting". African American Review. 31 (2). Indiana State University: 229. doi:10.2307/3042461. Retrieved February 14, 2021.
  25. ^ "Study for the Thankful Poor". Google Arts & Culture. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  26. ^ Taylor 2020, pp. 28–29.
  27. ^ a b c Woods 2011, p. 895.
  28. ^ Baker, Kelly J. (2003). Henry Ossawa Tanner: Race, Religion, and Visual Mysticism (Thesis). Florida State University Libraries. p. 7. Retrieved February 14, 2021.
  29. ^ Woods 2011, p. 895–896.
  30. ^ Skeel, Sharon Kay (February–March 1991). "A Black American In The Paris Salon". American Heritage. Vol. 42, no. 1. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  31. ^ a b Parker, Lonnae O'Neal (April 3, 2002). "Cosby collection curator puts passion on display". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved February 22, 2021.
  32. ^ Cotter, Holland (November 6, 2014). "Continents in Conversation". The New York Times. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  33. ^ "New exhibit celebrates artists who broke color barrier". WLS-TV. Chicago. February 22, 2016. Retrieved January 15, 2021.
  34. ^ Alexander-Minter 2005, p. 131.

Bibliography

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