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Lion Drinking
(18th and 19th Centuries )
Henry Ossawa Tanner is regarded as one of the most distinguished African American painters. Tanner received his training at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts in Philadelphia under Thomas Eakins and at the Académie Julian in Paris. After 1895, he lived in Paris and painted religious works inspired by his travels in the Holy Land. This painting dates from ca.1897 and is probably set in Palestine. It appears closely related to another painting of several lions from around the same date: "Lions in the Desert" (1897-98) in the Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC. Like the lions in the Smithsonian's painting, the lion in this work bares a strong compositional resemblance those seen in the work of Jean-Léon Gérôme. Tanner depicted lions throughout his career, and they may have had a special symbolic meaning for the artist.
Inscription
Provenance
Provenance (from the French provenir, 'to come from/forth') is the chronology of the ownership, custody, or location of a historical object. Learn more about provenance at the Walters.
Hollister T. Sprague, Seattle; by bequest to Seattle Art Museum, 1986; Important American Painting, Drawings, and Sculpture Sale, Christie's, New York, May 16 2012, lot 19; purchased by Walters Art Museum, 2012.
Exhibitions
| 2024-2025 | Reinstallation 2024: Art and Process. The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore. |
Geographies
France, Paris
(Place of Origin)
Palestine (Place Depicted)
Measurements
H: 9 1/4 × W: 14 3/4 in. (23.5 × 37.5 cm)
Framed: H: 18 1/4 × W: 23 5/8 × D: 2 15/16 in. (46.4 × 60 × 7.5 cm)
Credit Line
Museum purchase with funds provided through the bequest of Laura Delano Eastman by exchange, 2012
Location in Museum
Accession Number
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
In libraries, galleries, museums, and archives, an accession number is a unique identifier assigned to each object in the collection.
37.2932