American, 19th–20th century, male.
Active from 1891 in France.
Born 21 June 1859, in Pittsburgh; died 25 May 1937, in Paris.
Painter, illustrator, pastellist, watercolourist, engraver, photographer. Religious subjects, genre scenes, harbour views, landscapes, urban landscapes, seascapes, animals.
Symbolism.
Tanner’s father was the minister of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Pittsburgh, then in Philadelphia from 1866, and became Superintendent of his Church in 1888. His mother, Sarah Miller, had escaped slavery during her childhood, getting to Pittsburgh through the network called the Underground Railway. She set up a school in her own house for the children of the community. Tanner studied at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts from 1880 to 1882 under Thomas Eakins (Eakins did a portrait of Tanner in 1900). He became an illustrator, notably for ...
