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Moroccan Scene

Henry Ossawa Tanner

About 1912

Raised in Philadelphia, Henry Ossawa Tanner went on to become one of the most successful American artists of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. His unusual middle name derives from Osawatomie, Kansas, the town defended by the abolitionist John Brown against pro-slavery agitators in 1856. Tanner began painting as a young teenager and by age twenty was granted admission to the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Despite discrimination and mistreatment, he flourished under the tutelage of the realist painter Thomas Eakins and became known for his reverent depictions of African Americans and religious subjects.


Frustrated by racial prejudice, Tanner left Philadelphia in 1889, moving first to Atlanta, then to Paris, which became his permanent home. In 1912, Tanner spent several months in Morocco, a trip that inspired a great number of works including Moroccan Scene, which displays the dramatic handling of light for which Tanner became known. Tanner was the only African-American artist of his generation to gain widespread acclaim and remains a most celebrated artist today.


Remarkably, Tanner has a tie to Alabama: in 1891, his sister, Halle Tanner Dillon Johnson, became the first woman to practice medicine in this state.

See More of the Collection

This painting represents a beach scene. Rocks stand on a sand bar in the middle ground, including a prominently placed arched rock at the center of the canvas. To the right of the arched rock, a woman sits on another rock within calm water and behind her appears to be the remains of a wrecked boat. Calm water spans the foreground of the painting, and distant waves are seen breaking on the ocean in the b ackground. Above the scene is a blue sky filled with distinct clouds. Touches of brown-yellow paint are also in the sky.
A winged male infant—identified as Cupid, ancient Roman god of love—rides atop an elegantly stylized gazelle, which has been fitted with an ornate saddle, embellished with gilding and red paint, and a sun-like gilded ornamental disc surrounded by three spheres between its antlers. Raised decorative nubs protrude along the center of the back of the gazelle’s head; these nubs visually complement the drop finials on the saddle at the gazelle’s underbelly.
St. John's in the Village, Lucy Jane Salter, woodcut
Seated Male Nude, Bearded, Lucille Douglass, charcoal