HENRY OSSAWA TANNER (1859 - 1937) Untitled (Paris Park).
Oil on panel, circa 1900. 115x165 mm; 4 5/8x6 1/2 inches. Signed in oil, lower left. Inscribed in faded ink "Paris, Jardin de Luxembourg" on the verso, likely in another hand.
Provenance: private collection.
This jewel-like painting of a Parisian fountain and park, likely the Jardin de Luxembourg, is not only a charming view of Paris but an example of a working study by the artist. As seen in Study for Christ and Nicodemus on a Rooftop, circa 1898-1899, in the collection of the Smithsonian, the artist had a looser hand and a more direct approach with prepartory paintings. He did these landscapes and figure studies on the spot, "en plein aire," whether he was in Paris or the Holy Land.
By the turn of the century, Tanner was exhibiting at the prestigious and rigorously-juried Salon almost every year. He had received the type of recognition in the Parisian art community that few other Americans ever achieved. In 1897, Tanner's Resurrection of Lazarus was not only accepted to the Salon and critically acclaimed, it was purchased by the Musée du Luxembourg. Tanner's new studio on Boulevard St. Jacques in 1900 was not far from the Jardin de Luxembourg.
The gold dome in this painting could also be a view of Les Invalides, of which Tanner made a large oil painting in 1896, now in the Terra Foundation collection, Chicago.
