The Art Institute acquired The Two Disciples at the Tomb in 1906 after the canvas was declared “the most impressive and distinguished work of the season” at the museum’s annual exhibition of American painting and sculpture. At that time, Henry Ossawa Tanner was at the height of his reputation, enjoying international fame and winning prizes on both sides of the Atlantic. The son of an African American bishop, Tanner was raised in Philadelphia, where he studied with Thomas Eakins before working as an artist and photographer in Atlanta. Repelled by the racial prejudice he encountered in the United States, he chose to spend nearly all of his adult life in France.
Tanner’s early subjects included many scenes of African American life, but later he specialized in religious paintings. The Two Disciples at the Tomb is one of the most concentrated and austere of these works. The somber spirituality of the moment when two of Jesus’s followers realize that he has risen from the dead is conveyed by Tanner’s use of dark tones and compressed space and his avoidance of superfluous detail. Although the artist painted in a relatively conservative representational manner throughout his life, the sinuous lines and simplified, harsh modeling here suggest his awareness of Art Nouveau and Expressionist currents in contemporary European painting. Likewise, his emphasis on psychological rather than physical experience has many parallels in advanced art of the same period, including Pablo Picasso’s early work, such as The Old Guitarist, painted two years earlier.
Andrea D. Barnwell and Kirsten P. Buick, “A Portfolio of Works by African American Artists Continuing the Dialogue: A Work in Progress,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 24, 2 (1999), p. 186.
Andrew J. Walker, “Portfolio,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 24, 2 (1999), p. 190, no. 2.
Susan F. Rossen, “Introduction,” Art Institute of Chicago Museum Studies 24, 2 (1999), p. 141.
"Paintings at the Art Institute of Chicago, Highlights of the Collection," (Art Institute of Chicago/Yale University Press, 2017) p. 90.
Chicago, McCormick Place, Century of Negro Progress, August 16-September 2, 1963.
Washington D.C. Howard University, Ten Afro-American Artists of the Nineteenth Century, February 3-March 30, 1967.
New York, Grand Central Art Galleries, Henry Ossawa Tanner exhibition, November 16-December 7, 1967.
Atlanta, Spelman College, Henry O. Tanner, An Afro-American Romantic Realist, March 30-April 30, 1969, cat. 7.
Berkeley, University of California Art Museum, The Hand and the Spirit: Religious Art in America 1770-1900, June 27-August 6, 1972; traveled to Washington D.C. National Gallery, September-October 1972; Dallas Museum of Fine Arts, December 10, 1972-January 14, 1973; Indianapolis Museum of Art, February-April 1973.
New York, Metropolitan Museum, Selections of nineteenth Century Afro-American Art, June 18-August 1, 1976.
Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Two Centuries of Black American Art, September 30-November 21, 1976; traveled to High Museum of Art, January 8-February 20, 1977; Museum of Fine Arts, Dallas, March 30-May 15, 1977; Brooklyn Museum of Art, June 25-August 21, 1977, cat. 54.
New York, Whitney Museum, Turn-of-the-Century America, June 30-October 2, 1977; traveled to St. Louis Art Museum, December 1, 1977-January 21, 1978; Seattle Art Museum, February 2-March 12, 1978; Oakland Museum of Art, April 4-May 28-1978, cat. 22.
Philadelphia Museum of Art, Henry Ossawa Tanner, January 20-April 14, 1991; traveled to Detroit Institute of Arts, May 12-August 4, 1991; Atlanta, High Museum of Art, September 17-November 24, 1991; Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, M.H. De Young Memorial Museum, December 14, 1991-March 1, 1992.
Kansas City, Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Across Continents and Cultures: the Art and Life of Henry Ossawa Tanner, June 25-August 20, 1995; traveled to Dallas Museum of Art, September 12-December 31, 1995; Chicago, Terra Museum of American Art, January 12-May 5, 1996.
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Henry O. Tanner: Modern Spirit, January 27-April 15, 2012; traveled to Cincinnati Art Museum, May 26-September 9, 2012; Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, October 21, 2012-January 13, 2013.
