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The Canyon
Henry Ossawa Tanner (born Pittsburgh, PA 1859-died Paris, France 1937)
n.d.
- Medium
- oil on canvas
- Classification
- Paintings
- Dimensions
- 16 x 13 in. (40.6 x33.0 cm.)
- Museum
- Smithsonian Institution, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Painting and Sculpture
- Credit line
- Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Norman Robbins
- Rights
- CC0 (Smithsonian Open Access), as the museum states it.
- Who can see it
- Little Ones profiles and older: it shows gentle subjects for the very young. How works are placed
View at the Smithsonian Institution
About this work
This barren landscape suggests a scene that Henry Ossawa Tanner probably saw while in the Middle East in 1897 or 1898. The clear blue sky that appears through the opening of the deep canyon evokes a hot, sunny day in the desert region. Tanner applied thick paint and left his brushstrokes visible in order to convey the canyon’s rough terrain.
