| Nicodemus Before Christ | |
|---|---|
| Nicodemus Coming to Christ, Nicodemus | |
 Nicodemus Visiting Jesus, by Henry Ossawa Tanner | |
| Artist | Henry Ossawa Tanner |
| Year | 1899 |
| Subject | Christ's discourse with Nicodemus |
| Dimensions | (33 11/16 in × 39 1/2 in) |
| Location | Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia |
| Accession | 1900.1 |
Nicodemus Visiting Christ is a painting by Henry Ossawa Tanner, made in Jerusalem in 1899 during the artist's second visit to what was then Palestine.[1] The painting is biblical, featuring Nicodemus talking privately to Christ in the evening, and is an example of Tanner's nocturnal light paintings, in which the world is shown in night light.[2]
It was Tanner's entry to the 1899 Paris Salon.[3] The painting was purchased by the Wilstadt Collection in Philadelphia and is now in the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA), Tanner's Alma Mater in the United States.[4][1][5] It won the Lippincott Prize for the best figurative work at PAFA's annual exhibition in 1899.[1]
- ^ a b c "Nicodemus". Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art.
- ^ "Tanner's Exhibition". The Colorado Statesman. Vol. 15, no. 18. Denver. 23 January 1900.
All of Mr. Tanner's subjects are religious. As Harrison S. Morris says of him in the introduction to the catalogue, 'He has quietly followed his instinct for beauty, and employed it in the interpretation of the primitive characters and happenings of the Bible.' That 'instinct for beauty' shows itself especially in Mr. Tanner's moonlight scenes. When the artist visited Palestine he found that by day the scenery lacked atmosphere as the scenery of our western plains does; that its color was crude and hard...so he only painted it by night.
- ^ Mosby, Dewey F. (1991). Henry Ossawa Tanner. Philadelphia Museum of Art. Philadelphia; New York: Philadelphia Museum of Art; Rizzoli International Publications. p. 41. ISBN 978-0-8478-1346-9.
- ^ "A Negro Artist". The Macon Telegraph. Macon, Georgia. 2 January 1909. p. 4.
- ^ "An Afro-American Artist". Times Union. Brooklyn, New York. 13 September 1902. p. 15.