Abraham's Oak (painting)

Abraham's Oak is a painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner, an American painter who lived in France, completed about 1905.[1] While Tanner is well known today for two paintings in the United States, The Banjo Lesson and The Thankful Poor, both about African-American families, the bulk of his artwork, including some of his most iconic paintings, were concerned with exploring biblical subjects. Abraham's Oak was supposed to be a place where Abraham pitched his tent and built an alter to God, who had promised the Land of Canaan for him and his children, and where he was visited by an angel.[2]

Abraham's Oak
Abraham's Oak Near Hebron
Painting of Abraham's Oak
Abraham's Oak
ArtistHenry Ossawa Tanner
Year1905 (1905)
MediumOil on canvas
MovementImpressionism
SubjectAbraham, Oak of Mamre
Dimensions54.4 cm × 72.8 cm (21 3/4 in × 28 3/4 in)
LocationSmithsonian American Art Museum
Accession1983.95.185

Tanner may have visited the famous oak during a trip to the Middle East. At the time of his visit, the tree was in serious decline, its trunk supported with props and mostly leafless.[1] However, Tanner collected at least one postcard of the tree, a painting by Johann Friedrich Perlberg and revisited the tree in memory, several years after a visit sometime in 1897-1899.[1] It would number among many paintings of trees in the "nocturnal light."[1]

The painting is an example of Tanner's frequent painting of subjects in the dim light of nighttime. Other similar works in which he used the technique to paint evening landscapes include Le Touquet, The Wise Men, Christ and his Disciples on the Road to Bethany, and The Good Shepherd.[3]

Deeper meaning

Over his lifetime Tanner was influenced by the painting styles he encountered, and produced works with characteristics of "Realism, Symbolism, Impressionism, and Orientalism."[4] Sometimes he blended these; The Banjo Lesson is overall a work of realism or French genre painting applied to American subjects, but with an impressionistic use of light from multiple sides and in the painting's background.[5] Similarly, The Thankful Poor also uses elements of impressionism blended into a French genre or American Realism artwork.[6]

In the case of Abraham's Oak, the work can be described as impressionist, focusing on color, form and light and dismissing detail.[7] The viewer is shown a tree under a moonlit sky with two people walking in the moonlight. But that is the overall impression; there is no detail. Color and generalized shapes (the painting's forms) and the way the scene is lit create the impression.

Abraham's Oak is also a symbolic painting in which ideas themselves are expressed through that impressionism.[7] Newswriter Stephanie Brommer summarized the mix of symbolism with impressionistic technique in Abraham's Oak, saying the painting "radiates a mystical peace and spirituality with the moon's pale light and the symbolism of the oak, a majestic reminder of Abraham's years in Canaan centuries earlier."[8]

Ownership and display

1905

The painting was displayed as Abraham's Oak Near Hebron, at the 1905 exhibition of the Chicago Art Institute.[9]

1909

In 1909, the painting was part of an exhibition of 33 of Tanner's religious works at the American Art Galleries in New York.[10]

Tanner had been entering Salons and competitions in France and the United States and won many awards.[10] However, rather than keep ownership he sold his paintings as income.[11][10] He had never had an exhibition of his major works together in America, because these were held by museums and private collectors.[12][10] For his exhibition, he was loaned paintings by their owners.

Among those lending artworks were Atherton Curtis and Rodman Wanamaker, friends and patrons to Tanner. Each had several of his paintings. Abraham's Oak was owned by Curtis.[12]

Other works in the exhibition included Christ and Nicodemus (owned by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art), Christ at the Home of Mary and Martha (owned by the Carnegie Institute), Judas Covenanting with the High Priests, The Return of the Holy Woman, Mary Pondered All These Things in Her Heart, and Christ Washing the Feet of the Disciples (owned by Wanamaker), Christ on to Road to Bethany, He Vanished Out of Their Sight, and On the Road to Emmaus (owned by Curtis).[12][13]

The Good Shepherd, The Wise Men, The Flight Into Egypt, The Hiding of Moses, Mary and Behold, The Bridegroom Cometh were also named.[13][14]

References
  1. Richmond-Moll, Jeffrey. "A Souvenir from the Holy Land: On Henry Ossawa Tanner's Abraham's Oak". Smithsonian American Art Museum.
  2. "Tanner's Exhibition". The Colorado Statesman. Vol. 15, no. 18. Denver. 23 January 1900. "Abraham's Oak," under which tradition says an angel visited the patriarch...
  3. "Tanner's Exhibition". The Colorado Statesman. Vol. 15, no. 18. Denver. 23 January 1900. "Abraham's Oak," under which tradition says an angel visited the patriarch..."The Good Shepherd" is one of these moonlight subjects. Between two olive trees with gnarled trunks, the Shepherd comes with his flock. You see the dark forms of a man and of sheep emerging from a mysterious light with which the back of the picture is flooded..."The Wise Men, " "Abraham's Oak,"..."Christ On the Road to Bethany," and "The Flight Into Egypt" all have the same quality, the Sands impressive beauty.
  4. "Ossawa Tanner Henry Ossawa Tanner AMERICAN PAINTER". theartstory.org. ...his willingness to continually evolve his artistic abilities with an open mind led him to consistently expand his styles and subject matters. Over the course of his career, he dabbled in Realism, Symbolism, Impressionism, and Orientalism...
  5. Dr Richard Stemp. "Day 81 – The Banjo Lesson". His style sits somewhere between Realism and Impressionism...There are two light sources, neither of which is visible....the couple is surrounded by light. It illuminates the floor around them and the wall behind, so they stand out, dark, but clear and distinct, even if the Realist attention to naturalistic detail is softened by an impressionistic blurring of form.
  6. "Ossawa Tanner Henry Ossawa Tanner AMERICAN PAINTER". theartstory.org. While this work highlights the Realism ...the sway that modern Paris was beginning to have on the artist. ... in both the softening and loosening of the brushstrokes used to render certain items as well as the importance of light...
  7. "Walters exhibiting a unique 19th century black show". The Star-Democrat. Easton, Maryland. 5 February 1986. p. 25. Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937) combined French Impressionist color, light, form and technique with Symbolist expression of ideas through form in his work.
  8. Brommer, Stephanie (5 February 1986). "Walters exhibiting a unique 19th century black show". The Star-Democrat. Easton, Maryland. p. 25.
  9. "Mr. Stone Reviews Paintings". The Topeka Daily Capital. Topeka, Kansas. 6 November 1905. p. 4.
  10. "Henry O. Tanner's Great Success in Religious Painting". The Winnipeg Tribune. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. 13 February 1909. p. 18. It was with comparative difficulty that Mr, Tanner, like other artists whose works had passed from their ownership, was able to assemble a coherent and adequate collection...he was compelled to depend upon the good will of his patrons in America, owners who, In the years past, have enhanced their galleries with his works and have treasured them with a careful guardianship
  11. "Son of Colored Bishop Wins Honors in Paris". The Tacoma Daily Ledger. Tacoma, Washington. 13 September 1908. p. 32. Tanner has found it impossible to give any private exhibition of his paintings much as the idea pleases him. His canvases are sold as soon as finished — sometimes before.
  12. "A Negro Artist". The Macon Telegraph. Macon, Georgia. 2 January 1909. p. 4.
  13. "Tanner's Exhibition". The Colorado Statesman. Vol. 15, no. 18. Denver. 23 January 1900. The Good Shepherd"... "Abraham's Oak," ..."The Good Shepherd"..."The Wise Men, " "Abraham's Oak,"..."Christ On the Road to Bethany,"... "The Flight Into Egypt"..."The Return of the Holy Woman"with Calvary in the distance..."Christ and Nicodemus
  14. "Henry O. Tanner's Great Success in Religious Painting". The Winnipeg Tribune. Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. 13 February 1909. p. 18.
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