Henry Ossawa Tanner (American/Paris 1859 - 1937)

Leslie Hindman

Sale 271 Lot 11

* Henry Ossawa Tanner

(American, 1859-1937)

Behold! The Lamb of God, 1891

oil on canvas

signed Tanner and inscribed Paris (lower left)

13 1/8 x 18 1/8 inches.

Estimate $ 25,000-35,000

Property from the Collection of Dr. Rae Alexander-Minter, New York, New York

Provenance:

Collection of the artist

Gifted to Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander, niece of the artist, from the above

Thence by descent to the present owner

This work is accompanied by an essay from Dr. Rae Alexander-Minter, grand-niece of the artist.

Please contact us for a full condition report.

Behold! The Lamb of God, 1891, by Henry Ossawa Tanner was bequeathed to me by my mother, Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander, who was the niece of Henry Tanner. My maternal grandmother, Mary Tanner Mossell, was Henry's favorite sister and my mother his favorite niece.

The painting depicts a mature female sheep, a ewe, hovering over her dead baby lamb and a flock of crows flying above and on the ground. It appears to be a cold winter morning. The painting is signed lower left by the artist and the word "Paris" appears next to Tanner's signature.

What is particularly poignant and historically significant about the painting is that according to family lore, Behold! The Lamb of God was painted within the first few months after Tanner arrived in Paris in, January, 1891. Henry was at first overwhelmed by the city of Paris and felt homesick. After some time, the allure of the "City of Lights" began to embrace him and he felt freedom from the restraints and racism of America.

Henry Tanner knew the Biblical significance of the lamb because of his deep roots in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. He was the son of the distinguished AME Bishop Benjamin Tucker Tanner (1835-1923), a scholar of church history and spokesman for human and civil rights for Black Americans. The symbol of the lamb can be found in the Hebrew Bible, in Islam and the Quran, and the New Testament. Jesus Christ, in the New Testament context, came as the Lamb of God to give himself as a sacrifice for the sins of humankind. In John 1:29 when John the Baptist declares: "Behold the Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world!" Surely, Henry knew the hymn entitled "Not all the blood of beasts, On Jewish altars slain, Could give the guilty conscience peace Or wash away the stain. But Christ, the heav'nly Lamb, Takes all our sins away, A sacrifice of nobler name, And richer blood than they," which appeared in the AME Hymnals and he had probably sung as a child.

Written by Dr. Rae Alexander-Minter

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