The Thankful Poor by Henry Ossawa Tanner

Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1894, Oil On Canvas, Art Bridges

The portrait is serene and reverent: a grandfather with his grandson seated at a modest table, about to eat a simple meal together, pausing to give thanks. I am moved by the peaceful quality of the image, the simplicity and pragmatism of the items shown, the gentle glow of daylight from the window, and especially, the complete focus of the old man and young boy absorbed in prayer. The Thankful Poor emanates a sense of quiet fortitude, mutual respect, and genuine gratitude.

Painted in 1894 by Henry Ossawa Tanner, this artwork is a beautiful representation of the quiet moments shared between family members from different generations. The elderly gentleman exudes dignity as he mod- els a life of grace and faith for his grandson. Meanwhile, the child exhibits patience and restraint as he honors his grandfather’s wishes and prays to the Divine. There is a stillness that feels sacred. The painting depicts a comforting expression of love between two family members who clearly care deeply for each other.

Tanner was born in Pittsburgh in 1859 and grew up in Philadelphia. His father was a former slave who be- came a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. His mother had escaped slavery through the Un- derground Railroad. Tanner grew up in a household that valued education and counted educators like Booker T. Washington as close family friends. When he was about 12, inspired by a landscape painter working in Philadelphia’s Fairmount Park, Tanner decided to pursue a career in art.

In many ways he and his family were groundbreakers. Tanner became the first black student at the Pennsyl- vania Academy of Fine Arts. One of his sisters became the first woman certified to practice medicine in the state of Alabama. At the age of 41, Tanner won the coveted Lippincott Prize for his oil painting Nicodemus Visiting Jesus.

When he was thirty-two Tanner went to France to study. He ended up living there the rest of his life, dying in Paris in 1937 at the age of seventy[seven. In France he enjoyed an art career that flourished, bringing him acclaim from around the world. His Resurrection of Lazarus was purchased by the French government and eventually added to the Louvre. During his sixties, he was awarded high honors in both France and the United States. During the Clinton administration many years after Tanner’s death, one of his works, Sand Dunes at Sunset, Atlantic City, became the first painting by an African American artist to be added to the White House’s permanent collection.

The Thankful Poor offers us many insights. It shows that material wealth is not needed to be rich in spirit. In fact, it is often our struggles that lead to us turning to spiritual sustenance and, ultimately, inner growth. The pair in the painting may not have much, but they have what they need. Most of all, they have an unshakable inner faith and a love for each other to not only sustain them, but also enrich them. Tanner’s painting is an im- portant reminder that our greatest riches are found not in what we own, but in our relationships and the heart.

The Gleaners by Jean-Francois Millet

Jean-François Millet, 1857, Oil On Canvas, Musée d’Orsay, Paris

When I first saw The Gleaners I was struck by its size, as it measures approximately three feet by three-and-a-half feet. The three monumental women in the foreground drew me in. They are fully absorbed in their work of picking up the bits of grain that remain after a field has been harvested.

The Gleaners depicts peasant women gleaning wheat for themselves at sunset when only stray stalks are left to gather. The artist, Jean-François Millet, portrayed these workers in a very real and sympathetic light, communicating through his oil painting the exhausting work poor agricultural laborers had to do to survive in mid-1800s France. He took what his society at the time considered the lowest ranks in rural life and elevated them through art to a status equal to the middle and upper classes. Feeling threatened by this, the prosperous classes in France did not appreciate Millet’s painting when he unveiled it.

Millet was, in fact, an integral part of the Realism art movement, where the focus was on portraying scenes truthfully. Having grown up on a farm, he neither romanticized country life nor hid it from view. He knew firsthand what it meant to be an integral part of a farming community working the fields. In The Gleaners, Millet aptly portrays an everyday scene of people struggling to survive. Gleaning was a practice landowners allowed the poor to do once their rich harvests had been collected. High society may have looked down on gleaning, but Millet brought out the dignity of the gleaners and the life-and-death seriousness of their work.

In the painting the colors of the field and sky are soft and muted, although there is a golden hue that re-flects the sacredness of the land. The abundant harvest can be seen in the background, along with a field supervisor on horseback and laborers standing around. The gleaners, however, ignore the bounty in the distance. Their attention is fully upon the task of gleaning, since without the grain that they gather it will be challenging for them to survive the upcoming winter.

These workers emanate genuineness. They’re not distracted by the piles of grain or the activities of the farm-hands. Engrossed in the backbreaking work of locating and gathering meager leftovers, the three women keep close to each other in their solitary work yet remain removed from the rest of the scene.

By placing them in the foreground, making them large and substantial, Millet has tipped the scales, turning the gleaners that society preferred to ignore into the focus of attention. While their work clothes are dusty, colorful accents help them stand out.

Millet’s painting was received poorly when it debuted. People did not like having poverty stare back at them in art salons. Eventually sentiment changed, and by the late 1800s The Gleaners began to cultivate recognition and appreciation.

Have you ever had to do work that others looked down upon or did not appreciate? Perhaps one of the lessons of Millet’s painting is that there is no shame in doing what we must to survive. All work matters. Dignity and nobility exist in all walks of life, and we can be proud of the work we do regardless of what others may think. After all, they don’t walk in our shoes.