DOI Heft:
Nr. 197 (July, 1913)
DOI Artikel:MacChesney, Clara T.: A poet-painter of Palestine
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.43453#0107
A Poet-Painter of Palestine
Property of A. Curtis, Esq.
CHRIST AND HIS DISCIPLES ON THE ROAD TO BETHANY BY H. O. TANNER
A POET-PAINTER OF PALESTINE
/\ BY CLARA T. MacCHESNEY
J, JL Mr. Henry 0. Tanner may well
be termed the Poet-Painter of the
Holy Land. Dinet, Albert Besnard are each bril-
liant and individual in their own particular out-
look, and Tissot, who has given us the very
essence of realism, without the shadow of the
ideal, in his photographic rendering of biblical
scenes from Palestine, are all a far cry from The
Two Disciples at the Tomb, Nicodemus on the
Housetop, and the Five Virgins of Mr. Tanner.
He was born in Pittsburgh and brought up in
Philadelphia. Here his strong desire to become
an artist, with ill-health and lack of means against
him, made the fight a very long and bitter one.
He has spent the latter part of his life in Paris,
first studying in the schools and afterward in his
studio, and varied with trips to the Far East, to
Egypt, to Algiers, and to Palestine.
Several years ago he joined the art colony at
Trepied, where he has built himself a commo-
dious home and studio, and here the writer found
him completing twenty-five canvases for exhibi-
tions shortly to be held in Chicago and New York.
His studio is an ideal workroom, being high-
ceilinged, spacious and having the least possible
furniture, utterly free from masses of useless
studio stuff and paraphernalia. The walls are of
a light gray and at one end hangs a fine tapestry.
Oriental carved wooden screens are at the doors
and windows. Leading out of it is a small room
having a domed ceiling, and picturesque high win-
dows. In this simply furnished room he often
poses his models, painting himself in the large
studio, the sliding door between being a small one.
He can often make use of lamplight effects, the
daylight in the larger room not interfering. Many
great figure painters and painters of interiors in
Holland, e. g., Israels and River, followed the same
idea. They also built alcoves, leading out from
their studios, which were furnished like a room in
a peasant’s cottage, with a window in the center,
a table in front of it, flanked by a chair on either
side, these articles of furniture being bought
directly from the peasants, as well as the garments
with which the models were dressed. The back-
ground of several of his large canvases were laid
in this small room.
Mr. Tanner seldom paints other than biblical
subjects, unless it be an occasional portrait, as of
XI
Property of A. Curtis, Esq.
CHRIST AND HIS DISCIPLES ON THE ROAD TO BETHANY BY H. O. TANNER
A POET-PAINTER OF PALESTINE
/\ BY CLARA T. MacCHESNEY
J, JL Mr. Henry 0. Tanner may well
be termed the Poet-Painter of the
Holy Land. Dinet, Albert Besnard are each bril-
liant and individual in their own particular out-
look, and Tissot, who has given us the very
essence of realism, without the shadow of the
ideal, in his photographic rendering of biblical
scenes from Palestine, are all a far cry from The
Two Disciples at the Tomb, Nicodemus on the
Housetop, and the Five Virgins of Mr. Tanner.
He was born in Pittsburgh and brought up in
Philadelphia. Here his strong desire to become
an artist, with ill-health and lack of means against
him, made the fight a very long and bitter one.
He has spent the latter part of his life in Paris,
first studying in the schools and afterward in his
studio, and varied with trips to the Far East, to
Egypt, to Algiers, and to Palestine.
Several years ago he joined the art colony at
Trepied, where he has built himself a commo-
dious home and studio, and here the writer found
him completing twenty-five canvases for exhibi-
tions shortly to be held in Chicago and New York.
His studio is an ideal workroom, being high-
ceilinged, spacious and having the least possible
furniture, utterly free from masses of useless
studio stuff and paraphernalia. The walls are of
a light gray and at one end hangs a fine tapestry.
Oriental carved wooden screens are at the doors
and windows. Leading out of it is a small room
having a domed ceiling, and picturesque high win-
dows. In this simply furnished room he often
poses his models, painting himself in the large
studio, the sliding door between being a small one.
He can often make use of lamplight effects, the
daylight in the larger room not interfering. Many
great figure painters and painters of interiors in
Holland, e. g., Israels and River, followed the same
idea. They also built alcoves, leading out from
their studios, which were furnished like a room in
a peasant’s cottage, with a window in the center,
a table in front of it, flanked by a chair on either
side, these articles of furniture being bought
directly from the peasants, as well as the garments
with which the models were dressed. The back-
ground of several of his large canvases were laid
in this small room.
Mr. Tanner seldom paints other than biblical
subjects, unless it be an occasional portrait, as of
XI