The Fisherman's Return

Henry Ossawa Tanner, born Pittsburgh, PA 1859-died Paris, France 1937 · n.d.

The Fisherman's Return is one of two studies that Henry Ossawa Tanner created for a work titled Night, in which a fisherman and his son return home by lantern light. Beginning in the summer of 1900, the artist spent his vacations at Etaples, off the northern coast of France. Tanner may have painted this work as an homage to his father, a minister whom he greatly admired and who had praised him for dedicating his talents to religious images.