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Study for Christ and Nicodemus on a Rooftop

Henry Ossawa Tanner, born Pittsburgh, PA 1859-died Paris, France 1937

This study for Christ and Nicodemus on a Rooftop made Henry Ossawa Tanner's reputation. The story of Nicodemus visiting Christ at night spoke to African American worship habits that Tanner remembered from his youth: After emancipation, freed slaves continued to meet at night, as they had done when their masters had forbidden them to read the Bible (Mosby, Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1991).

Date

ca. 1923

Type

Painting

Medium

oil on wood panel

Department

SAAM

Institution

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Object number

saam_1983.95.188A

Credit

Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Norman Robbins