Profile of a Woman's Head

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

Henry Ossawa Tanner made many portraits while visiting the Holy Land to use as studies for his religious paintings. In the traditional dress of the Middle East, this woman resembles the images of Christ’s mother that Tanner created, such as Mary from about 1914. Tanner placed the woman against a dark background, a compositional trick that he learned from his teacher Thomas Eakins.