Analysis: The Banjo Lesson

The Banjo Lesson by Henry Tanner is one of his most famous works. The message to the viewer somewhat speaks for itself. Tanner’s work displays a lesson on how the black race broke ground from just being known as entertainers, now being known as an artist in the 19th century to a broad range of important roles in society today. One of Tanner’s painting called /is something I can absolutely relate to, because as a child, I was taught in the same manner with my uncle. The Banjo Lesson was painted in 1893 with Tanner using size and placement as a technique to emphasize the figures of the old man who is teaching the little boy how to play the banjo.

Tanner set the pair in the foreground and poses them so that their visual weight is from a single

mass, which is the largest form in the painting. There is a strong, contrasting value of a dark skin against a pale background to add further emphasis on this emphasized area. Tanner uses directional lines of sight to create a focal point on the circular body of the banjo and the little boy’s hand on it. Again the contrast plays a role for the light form of the banjo is set amid darker values, and the little boy’s hand contrasts dark against light.

Tanner has subordinated the background so that it does not interfere, blurring the detail and working in a narrow range of light values. For example, if one of the pictures depicted on the far wall were painted in bright colors and minute detail it would jump out of the painting and steal the focus away from what Tanner wants the viewer to notice. The Banjo Lesson was made on a canvas of heavy woven fabric. The medium of the painting is oil paint, normally it is used for acrylic due to its typically made of linen or cotton and stretches very tightly and tacked onto a wooden frame. In the painting the viewer’s attention goes mainly to the banjo, the little boy, and the old man. The surrounding outside of the two figures consists of a small dark room with pots, pans and a slight sense of light that shines behind the boy and the banjo on the wall.

When investigated closely you can see the fine lines of the canvas and the fluid used from the paint as if Tanner effortlessly swept the pigment onto the canvas. The lighting and color of the piece give the impression as if the subjects are caught in an inspiring stage between the old man and the boy as the sun begins to fade into the sunset. Tanner paints a sensitive reinterpretation of the moment, while the proportions and figures seem to be close to life showing its style as realism. Besides generalization, the painting portrays a specific moment of human interaction between the old man and the boy. The characters are shown concentrating intensely on the task before them and seem to be oblivious to the rest of the outside world.

The display of the old man and boy enlarges the sense of real contact and cooperation. The skillfully painted portraits of the individuals make it obvious that these are real people and not types. In addition, being a meaningful exploration of human qualities, this piece by Tanner is masterfully painted. Tanner undertakes the difficulty of the paintings’ endeavor of portraying two separate light sources. A natural white, blue glow from outside enters from the left while the warm light from a fireplace is apparent on the right. The figures are illuminated where the two light sources meet; some have hypothesized this as a manifestation of Tanner’s situation in transition between two worlds, his American past and his newfound home in France, through an arrangement of visual symbolism, color, form, and texture, Tanner expressed meaning that is universally affecting and deeply engaging. It was daring in 1839, for Tanner to paint African American subjects, let alone to paint them with dignity and sensitivity.
Read in its historical context, the painting is a plea for recognition of the fact that race does not somehow obscure what is distinctly human. Its communicative power, however, operates independently of its historical meaning. Like that of other art not only from the Harlem renaissance, its resonance lies in the fact that it speaks so personally and so interactively. Reading its endlessly decipherable canvas engages a dialogue of emotion, poeticism, personal experience and human intelligence. Because it is subject to interpretation through such a diverse array of approaches, its impact transcends difference. Its message reaches out with a blind hand and grips the viewer regardless of race, age, gender, class, martial status, interests, hobbies, I.Q. it is all-inclusive and all embracing.
The Banjo Lesson is a testament to the power of art moreover, it is a testament to the educational power of art.

It was first presented to me in my U.S. history class, on a rare day when the class did not proceed in the format of a lecture. After a few short minutes of gazing at it, I became captivated by it. It animated for me vividly and personally the infamous struggle for dignity, that colorful and multi-dimensional historical narrative that I had only ever heard about from the black and white pages of textbooks and from evocative but still somehow one dimensional lectures of my teachers. It spoke in immediate and tangible terms about the Harlem renaissance the way Dorothy Lange’s iconic photograph of a migrant mother speaks about the utter unfairness of depression era poverty, expressionist paintings speak about the psychological horrors of industrialism. It brought a level of personal meaning to what I was learning that nothing other than subjective and creative expression could

have.
Tanner‘s empathetic brush captures the intimate moment. Head lowered attentively, the old man surrounds the child, who is at ease and receptive. On the floor lie the implements of their modest life. Faithful to the story, a long panel of light bares the cabin’s smoke stained wall; the artist’s masterful technique is rivaled only by the dignity of the scene, gently handing down a prized possession, music lesson a life lesson.
In genre as in biblical scenes, Tanner manipulated light to create emotion and drama.

In The Banjo Lesson he lights up the interior of a rundown dwelling to reveal what might otherwise be missed, the poor glowing with humanity and knowledge. These qualities, so clearly expressed in art, can also be seen in the light of science but because they defy mathematical measurement, they become invisible in cost-effectiveness and other studies, eluding economic analysis and adequate attention. The banjo lesson broke this cliché with its sensitive, sincere and intense interpretation of the individuals that comprise African American communities and their abilities; the musical traditions that are sweetly transferred from one generation to the next within the earthy tones, is indeed a combative work meant to fight cultural norms. In an era where African Americans were viewed as subhuman Tanners reputation as a painter in itself was monumental. Before he became famous his mother Sarah Miller sent him, along with his brothers and sisters, through the networks of the Underground Railroad eventually finding refuge in the Free State of

Pennsylvania.