Henry Ossawa Tanner's The Annunciation

In 1898, Henry Ossawa Tanner painted “The Annunciation”. It is a 3 dimensional picture displaying a female looking towards the side of the room at this burst of light. This female is meant to stand for the Virgin Mary. She is sitting on her bed with an oversized robe. She is looking into this burst of light. She clearly sees it for what it is. The burst of light is meant to stand for the angel Gabriel. Tanner used Oil on a canvas to paint it. Tanner turned the angel into such an abstraction makes the mystical event almost plausible for an age of science. The painting can be read as an annunciation of the coming age of electricity. Its dimensions are 57 x 71 ¼ inches. It was made in Paris, France. It's on display at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. You could find it in the American Art section on the first floor in Gallery 111.

Tanner specialized in religious subjects. He wanted to experience the people, culture, architecture, and light of the Holy Land. He was influenced by what he saw. The Annunciation was meant to express the intensity and fire of religious moments. He enjoyed displaying the connection between the divine and humanity. he was also a political activist. His mother, Sarah Tanner, was born into slavery in Virginia. She escaped to the North using the Underground Railroad. She was mixed race, and Tanner himself was either a quadroon ( A person who is one quarter African and three quarters European ancestry) or an octoroon (A person with one eighth Black Ancestry, basically a person with one black