Lions in the Desert
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Object Details
- Artist
- Henry Ossawa Tanner, born Pittsburgh, PA 1859-died Paris, France 1937
- Luce Center Label
- Henry Ossawa Tanner grew up in a religious home and his family took special pride in the history of the biblical Hamatic races of African origin (Mosby, Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1991). It is possible that he regarded the lion as a symbol of his African heritage. Tanner learned to draw lions from trips to the zoo in Philadelphia, where he grew up and attended art school. While in Paris in 1891, he sketched them at the Jardin des Plantes and took an animal anatomy course at the natural history museum. Tanner painted Lions in the Desert during one of his visits to the Middle East, which he described as a barren landscape. He did not see actual lions there, but later added them to the painting in his studio.
- Credit Line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Norman Robbins
- ca. 1897-1900
- Object number
- 1983.95.184
- Restrictions & Rights
- CC0
- Type
- Painting
- Medium
- oil on canvas mounted on plywood
- Dimensions
- 15 1/2 x 29 3/8 in. (39.5 x 74.5 cm.)
- See more items in
- Smithsonian American Art Museum Collection
- Department
- Painting and Sculpture
- Smithsonian American Art Museum
- Topic
- Landscape\desert
- Animal\lion
- Record ID
- saam_1983.95.184
- Metadata Usage (text)
- CC0
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/vk77e528e83-7f23-48fa-a818-8eeb3235c04e
This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Open Access page.
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