''The Banjo Lesson'' is an 1893 oil painting by African-American artist Henry Ossawa Tanner. The painting has elements of American

Realism Realism, Realistic, or Realists may refer to: In the arts *Realism (arts), the general attempt to depict subjects truthfully in different forms of the arts Arts movements related to realism include: *Classical Realism *Literary realism, a move ...

and of French

Impressionism Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...

. It depicts two African-Americans in a humble domestic setting: an old black man is teaching a young boy – possibly his grandson – to play the

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

. It has been held by

Hampton University Hampton University is a private, historically black, research university in Hampton, Virginia. Founded in 1868 as Hampton Agricultural and Industrial School, it was established by Black and White leaders of the American Missionary Association af ...

since 1894.

Background

Tanner was born in

Pittsburgh Pittsburgh ( ) is a city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, United States, and the county seat of Allegheny County, Pennsylvania, Allegheny County. It is the most populous city in both Allegheny County and Wester ...

in 1859 and grew up in

Philadelphia Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the sixth-largest city in the U.S., the second-largest city in both the Northeast megalopolis and Mid-Atlantic regions after New York City. Sinc ...

. His mother was born as a slave in

Virginia Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...

and escaped through the

Underground Railroad The Underground Railroad was a network of clandestine routes and safe houses established in the United States during the early- to mid-19th century. It was used by enslaved African Americans primarily to escape into free states and Canada. T ...

; his father was a free-born black minister in the

African Methodist Episcopal Church The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a Black church, predominantly African American Methodist Religious denomination, denomination. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexionalism, c ...

and became a bishop in 1888. After studying with Thomas Eakins at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1879, where he was one of its first black students, Tanner ran a photography business in

Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

, from 1889, and taught drawing at

Clark College Clark College is a public community college in Vancouver, Washington. With 11,500 students, Clark College is the largest institution of higher education in southwest Washington. Founded in 1933 as a private two-year junior college, Clark Colleg ...

. His business was not a success, and he left to study in Rome in 1891, sponsored by Bishop

Joseph Crane Hartzell Joseph Crane Hartzell (June 1, 1842 – September 6, 1928) was an American Missionary Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church who served in the United States and in Africa. Early life and family Joseph was born of Methodist parents on a farm ...

of the (white)

Methodist Episcopal Church The Methodist Episcopal Church (MEC) was the oldest and largest Methodist denomination in the United States from its founding in 1784 until 1939. It was also the first religious denomination in the US to organize itself on a national basis. In ...

. Tanner settled in Paris, where he studied at the

Académie Julian The Académie Julian () was a private art school for painting and sculpture founded in Paris, France, in 1867 by French painter and teacher Rodolphe Julian (1839–1907) that was active from 1868 through 1968. It remained famous for the number a ...

from 1891, studying with Jean-Léon Gérôme,

Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant Jean-Joseph Benjamin-Constant (also known as Benjamin-Constant), born Jean-Joseph Constant (10 June 1845 – 26 May 1902), was a French painter and etcher best known for his Oriental subjects and portraits. Biography Benjamin-Constant was bor ...

and

Jean-Paul Laurens Jean-Paul Laurens (; 28 March 1838 – 23 March 1921) was a French painter and sculptor, and one of the last major exponents of the French Academic style. Biography Laurens was born in Fourquevaux and was a pupil of Léon Cogniet and Alexand ...

. This work was made after Tanner returned temporarily to the US in 1893 to recuperate after suffering from

typhoid fever Typhoid fever, also known as typhoid, is a disease caused by '' Salmonella'' serotype Typhi bacteria. Symptoms vary from mild to severe, and usually begin six to 30 days after exposure. Often there is a gradual onset of a high fever over several ...

. He spent some time in the

Appalachian Mountains The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

, and spoke at the Congress on Africa at the 1893

World's Columbian Exposition The World's Columbian Exposition (also known as the Chicago World's Fair) was a world's fair held in Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordi ...

in Chicago. One possible influence on the work was Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem "A Banjo Song", included in his first book ''Oak and Ivy'' printed in small edition privately in 1892 when the poet was aged 20, and which Dunbar may have recited at the World's Columbian Exposition. Tanner wrote of himself (using the third person): "To his mind any of the artists who have represented Negro life have only seen the comic, the ludicrous side of it, and have lacked sympathy and appreciation for the warm big heart that dwells within such a rough exterior." It is not clear if the painting was made in Philadelphia (there is a suggestion it or a study was exhibited there in early 1894), or perhaps completed after he arrived back in Paris. The

genre painting Genre painting (or petit genre), a form of genre art, depicts aspects of everyday life by portraying ordinary people engaged in common activities. One common definition of a genre scene is that it shows figures to whom no identity can be attached ...

is based on an illustration that Tanner drew while in the US, for the short story "Uncle Tim's Compromise on Christmas" by

Ruth McEnery Stuart Ruth McEnery Stuart (1849–1917) was an American author. Early life and marriage She was born Mary Routh McEnery Stuart, child of James and Mary Routh (Stirling) McEnery in Marksville, Louisiana. (She changed the spelling of her name to "Ruth ...

, published in December 1893 in ''

Harper's Young People ''Harper's Young People'' was an American children's magazine between 1879 and 1899. The first issue appeared in the fall of 1879. It was published by Harper & Brothers. It was Harper's fourth magazine to be established, after ''Harper's Magazine' ...

'', volume 15, page 81. In the story, an old man (old Tim) gave his banjo, his only valuable possession, to the boy (little Tim) as a Christmas present, and the compromise was that they would share it. "The only thing in the world that the old man held as a personal possession was his old banjo. It was the one thing the little boy counted on as a precious future property, and often, at all hours of the day or evening, old Tim could be seen sitting before the cabin, his arms around the boy, who stood between his knees, while, with eyes closed, he ran his withered fingers over the strings, picking out the tunes that best recalled the stories of olden days that he loved to tell into the little fellow's ear. And sometimes, holding the banjo steady, he would invite little Tim to try his tiny hands at picking the strings."

Description

The painting measures . Tanner subverts stereotypical images of caricatured cheerful

minstrels A minstrel was an entertainer, initially in medieval Europe. It originally described any type of entertainer such as a musician, juggler, acrobat, singer or fool; later, from the sixteenth century, it came to mean a specialist entertainer who ...

playing the

and dancing, and tropes of innate black musicality, portraying instead a calm and sentimental domestic scene with one generation passing on their knowledge and instructing another. The painting depicts a grey-haired old man sitting on a chair in his sparsely furnished home, with the boy standing close before him between his spread legs holding the musical instrument. Both are observing as the child carefully plucks the strings with one hand, while holding a chord with the other hand; the weight of the instrument is supported by the man. In the background, some crockery and a loaf of bread are placed on a table or sideboard, with a few small pictures on the bare wall, a second chair, and a coat hanging beside a shelf. In the foreground are some kindling and cooking vessels on the bare floorboards. The scene is lit from two directions: a cold bluish light from a window to the left and a warmer yellow light from a fireplace to the right, both unseen. The colour palette is dominated by humble, earthy tones, blacks, greys and browns, whites and yellows. The setting is humble but not impoverished: there is a wooden floor not bare dirt, and the walls are plastered and decorated with two pictures not bare wood; the table has a clean tablecloth. The two subjects are similar to those in Tanner's 1894 painting ''

The Thankful Poor ''The Thankful Poor'' is an 1894 genre painting by the African-American painter Henry Ossawa Tanner. It depicts two African Americans praying at a table, and shares common themes with Tanner's other paintings from the 1890s including '' The Ban ...

'', which depicts the old man and young boy sitting at a table, praying before a meal. Both paintings were based on staged photographs that Tanner took in Atlanta. Farisa Khalid draws explicit parallels with several Old Master paintings, including

Domenico Ghirlandaio Domenico di Tommaso Curradi di Doffo Bigordi (, , ; 2 June 1448 – 11 January 1494), professionally known as Domenico Ghirlandaio, also spelled as Ghirlandajo, was an Italian Renaissance painter born in Florence. Ghirlandaio was part of ...

's c.1490 ''

An Old Man and his Grandson ''An Old Man and his Grandson'' ( it, Ritratto di vecchio con nipote) is a ca. 1490 tempera painting by the Italian Renaissance artist Domenico Ghirlandaio. One of Ghirlandaio's best-known works, it is considered notable for its emotional poigna ...

'', and Johannes Vermeer's c.1662-1663 ''

Woman with a Lute ''Woman with a Lute'', also known as ''Woman with a Lute Near a Window'', is a painting created about 1662–1663 by Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer and now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The painting depicts a young woman wearin ...

'', as well as the more contemporary peasant works of Jean-François Millet, such as his 1857-59 painting '' The Angelus''. Judith Wilson contends that Tanner "lifted what Du Bois would call 'the Veil of Race' to give art audiences an unprecedented 'inside look' at Afro-American culture".

Reception

Tanner returned to Paris, where ''The Banjo Lesson'' was his first work to be accepted at the

Paris Salon The Salon (french: Salon), or rarely Paris Salon (French: ''Salon de Paris'' ), beginning in 1667 was the official art exhibition of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris. Between 1748 and 1890 it was arguably the greatest annual or biennial art ...

in 1894 (an earlier work that he submitted in 1892, perhaps a version of ''The Bagpipe Lesson'', had been rejected). Despite his success, Tanner turned away from depictions of African-Americans, finding more critical and commercial success with landscape paintings and biblical scenes. A retrospective exhibition in New York in 1908 did not include ''The Banjo Lesson''. Tanner enlisted with the

American Red Cross The American Red Cross (ARC), also known as the American National Red Cross, is a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. It is the desi ...

in France in 1917, and served as a lieutenant in ambulances in the First World War. He was later awarded the French Legion d'Honneur for his war work. Three of his paintings were bought by the French government for the Musée du Luxembourg, and these works - ''The Resurrection of Lazarus'', ''The Disciples at Emmaus'', and ''Christ and His Disciples on the Bethany Road'' - are now in the

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) ( en, Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art ...

. The extent to which Tanner continued to see himself as a black man, and the extent to which he "passed" in France, is debated. As W.S Scarborough of Wilberforce College wrote in 1902, "When "The Banjo Lesson" appears, many of the friends of the race sincerely hoped that a portrayer of Negro life by a Negro artist had arisen indeed. They hoped, too, that the treatment of race subjects by him would serve to counterbalance so much that has made the race only a laughingstock subject for those artists who see nothing in it but the most extravagantly absurd and grotesque. But this was not to be." The painting was bought by

Robert Curtis Ogden Robert Curtis Ogden (June 20, 1836 – August 6, 1913) was a businessman who promoted education in the Southern United States. Biography Ogden was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on June 20, 1836. He began work in a dry-goods store at 14 years ...

, who donated it to the Hampton Institute (now Hampton University) in November 1894, and it remains in the collection of the

Hampton University Museum Founded in 1868 on the campus of Hampton University, the Hampton University Museum is the oldest African-American museum in the United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) ...

, in

Hampton, Virginia Hampton () is an independent city (United States), independent city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. As of the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the population was 137,148. It is the List ...

. A similar painting ''The Bagpipe Lesson'', 1892, depicting a youth practising to play the bagpipes beside a flowering apple tree in northern France, was also presented to the Hampton Institute in 1894; there is a study in the

Smithsonian American Art Museum The Smithsonian American Art Museum (commonly known as SAAM, and formerly the National Museum of American Art) is a museum in Washington, D.C., part of the Smithsonian Institution. Together with its branch museum, the Renwick Gallery, SAAM holds o ...

. File:The Thankful Poor, 1894. Henry Ossawa Tanner.jpg, ''

'', 1894, private collection File:Study for the Bagpipe Lesson SAAM-1983.95.42 1.jpg, Study for ''The Bagpipe Lesson'', 1892, Smithsonian American Art Museum

References

Hampton University Museum
Hampton University
‘Real’ Experiences and Upended Stereotypes: Henry Ossawa Tanner’s Black Genre Scenes
Princeton University
Artistic light and capturing the immeasurable
Polyxeni Potter, ''Emerg Infect Dis.'', 2008 Feb; 14(2): 360–361
This Week’s Art: Henry Ossawa Tanner’s “The Banjo Lesson”
Russell Dickerson, 18 March 2018
Cross-Curricular Connect: The Banjo Lesson
Charles McQuillen, 3 January 2016
Farisa Khalid, "Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Banjo Lesson"
Smarthistory, 9 September 2016
"A Missing Question Mark: The Unknown Henry Ossawa Tanner"
Will South, Nineteenth-Century Art Worldwide 8, no. 2 (Autumn 2009)
Evidence in art: Tanner's The Banjo Lesson
David Byron, 8 January 2008
"Lifting "The Veil": Henry O. Tanner's The Banjo Lesson and The Thankful Poor"
Judith Wilson, ''Contributions in Black Studies'': Vol. 9, Article 4. (1992)
"The Banjo Lesson: Henry Ossawa Tanner"
Thomas B Col, ''The Art of JAMA''. 2014;311(17):1714–1715. doi:10.1001/jama.2013.279474
Day 81 – The Banjo Lesson
Dr Richard Stemp
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Rae Alexander-Minter, ''Présence Africaine'', no. 171, 2005, pp. 119–132.
"Henry Ossawa Tanner's Negotiation of Race and Art: Challenging 'The Unknown Tanner.'"
Naurice Frank Woods, ''Journal of Black Studies'', vol. 42, no. 6, 2011, pp. 887–905.
"The Advent of 'The Nigger': The Careers of Paul Laurence Dunbar, Henry O. Tanner, and Charles W. Chesnutt"
Matthew Wilson, American Studies'', vol. 43, no. 1, 2002, pp. 5–50.
"Henry Ossawa Tanner's Subversion of Genre"
Albert Boime, ''The Art Bulletin'', vol. 75, no. 3, 1993, pp. 415–442. {{DEFAULTSORT:Banjo Lesson, The Paintings by Henry Ossawa Tanner 1893 paintings Hampton University Black people in art Musical instruments in art