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THE ART OF BECOMING: MIMICRY, AMBIVALENCE, AND ORIENTALISM IN THE WORK OF HENRY OSSAWA TANNER AND HILDA RIX By LAURA M. WINN A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILL MENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2018

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2018 Laura M. Winn

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To my first teachers, my Mom and Dad, for giving me the lifelong gift and love for learning

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4 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are many people that helped in facilitating and supporting the long and challenging journey of researching and writing this dissertation. I am grateful to all of them. None of this would have been possible without the guidance o f my committee members Ashley Jones, Brigitte Weltman Aron, Elisabeth Fraser, and Nika Elder. Thank you for being so generous with your time, expert ise, and thoughtful suggestions I am especially indebted to my advisor and the chair of the committee Meli ssa Hyde for her willi ngness to adopt a Classicist interest ed in gender studies and introduce me to the importance and fun of dix huitime scholarship Melissa worked through multiple iterations and drafts of this project t o cl arify and refine my argument s helping to bring a greater coherence and new voice to the exceptional lives and artistic contributions of Henry Ossawa Tanner and Hilda Rix Nicholas. Through every phase of my gradua te education at Florida she has been a vital resource and mentor. I fee l incredibility fortunate to have been her student. Crystalizing ideas into a finished dissertation often felt like an i nsurmountable challenge. I greatly benefited from the support, feedback, and experience o f my These ladies susta ined and uplifted me wi th their intellect and positivity. I thank Maura Gleeson, Carissa Nicholson, Leslie Todd, Lauren Walters, and Ellie Laughlin for allowing me to vent and workshop ideas with them, but mostly for their camaraderie and laughter when I n eeded it most. Additionally, I owe a special thank you to Patrick Grigb sy and Laura Roberston in the College of Fine Arts for guiding me through the gauntlet of advising and administrative procedures and for always having answers to my questions when I ne eded them. Throughout my research I came to depend on the generosity of scholars, curators, and archivists on opposite sides of the world It was through their assistance that I was able to access the materials that were integral in helping craft and impr ove upon my ideas. I am grateful for the

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5 time, talent, and knowledge of Emily Leischner at the Philadelphia Museum of Art Amber Kerr conservationist at the Smithsonian American Art Museum, in addition to Huang Tran at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts archive s and Tim Horning with the University of Pennsylvania archives. During my travels and research in Australia I benefited from discussions with Alexandra Torrens at the Australian War Memorial and Rose Montebe llo with the National Museum of Art in Canberra, as well as Elle Freak with the curatorial department at the Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide. I thank my family, Sharon, Michael, and Stephanie Winn for their encouragement and unyielding support of m commitment and dedication to the field of education continues to inspire my purist and growth as a teache r. Lastly, I must thank my husband John Freeman for standing by and supporting me through the duration of my graduate studies at Florida. You labored and sacrificed through this project with me. Through all the struggles and successes you are the person I turn to for comfort, criticism, levity, and encouragement. You are my rock Thank you always and forever.

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6 TABLE OF CONTENTS page ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ................................ ................................ ................................ ............... 4 LIST OF FIGURES ................................ ................................ ................................ ......................... 8 ABSTRACT ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ... 12 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION ................................ ................................ ................................ .................. 14 Previous Scholarship and Approaches to Henry Ossawa Tanner and Hilda Rix ................... 17 Orientalism and its Interlocutors ................................ ................................ ............................ 27 Defining Mimicry, Methods, and Purpose of Study ................................ ............................... 31 Overview of Chapters ................................ ................................ ................................ ............. 42 2 ...... 47 Race Relations and Artistic Foundations in Postbellum America ................................ .......... 50 Double Consciousness and Racial Oppression ............................ 56 Academic Ambivalence and Black Genre Scenes ................................ ................................ .. 61 Expatriatism and Abandonment of th e New Negro? ................................ .............................. 78 Mimicry and Mockery in the Latin Quarter ................................ ................................ ........... 87 3 CREATING A HOME FOR WOMEN, REALISM, AND RELIGION .............................. 115 Foundations in Gender Consciousness: The Exceptional Tanner Women ........................... 116 Creating a Home in France ................................ ................................ ................................ ... 120 Marian Imagery and Mothers of the Bible ................................ ................................ ........... 129 Abstraction as Camouflage for the Re Presentation of Women in Christian Art ................. 140 ................................ ................................ ................................ ......... 147 4 HILDA RIX: PROFESSIONAL AMBITION IN A NEW WORLD/NEW WOMAN ....... 161 ationship to the Heidelberg School Mythology ............................... 167 ................................ .............. 179 Artistic Ingnue i n Europe ................................ ................................ ................................ .... 191 ................................ ..................... 198 Becoming an Artist in taples ................................ ................................ .............................. 207 5 ESCAPE AND TRANSCENDENCE IN THE ORIENT ................................ ..................... 226 Hybridity in the Holy Land ................................ ................................ ................................ ... 228 Aesthetic Ex perimentation and Escapism in the Orient ................................ ....................... 236 Imaging/Imagining North Africa ................................ ................................ .......................... 242

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7 Transcendence in Morocco ................................ ................................ ................................ ... 253 6 MIMICRY AND HYSTERIA IN THE ORIENT ................................ ................................ 270 Australian Orientalism and Romantic Antecedents ................................ .............................. 273 Miming the Mimic in Morocco ................................ ................................ ............................ 277 Distinguishing Difference in the Grand Soko ................................ ................................ ...... 283 Oriental Ambivalence Exploitation or S ubversion? ................................ .......................... 291 Hysterically Defining the Self by Masquerading as the Other ................................ ............. 298 7 CONCLUSION ................................ ................................ ................................ ..................... 312 The End of the Belle poque: Tragedy and Transformation ................................ ................ 312 An Ambivalent Legacy ................................ ................................ ................................ ......... 322 LIST OF REFER ENCES ................................ ................................ ................................ ............. 330 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH ................................ ................................ ................................ ....... 341

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8 LIST OF FIGURES Figure page 2 1 Henry Ossawa Tan ner, The Banjo Lesson, 1893 ................................ ............................ 104 2 2 Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Thankful Poor 1894 ................................ ........................... 104 2 3 Attributed to Henry Ossawa Tanner, Ph otographic study for The Banjo Lesson n.d. .... 105 2 4 Eastman Johnson, Negro Life in the South (Old Kentucky Home), 1859. ..................... 105 2 5 Willy Miller, wood engraving after lost painting by Thomas Hovenden n.d ................................ ................................ ................................ ................. 106 2 6 Thomas Eakins, Negro Boy Dancing, 1878. ................................ ................................ .... 106 2 7 Thomas Ball, Emancipation Group or 1876 ............................. 107 2 8 Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Piet, 1498 1500 ................................ .............. 107 2 9 Jean Baptiste Simon Chardin, Saying Grace (le bndicit) ca.1740 .......................... 108 2 10 Elizabeth Nourse, Le Repas en Famille 1891 ................................ ................................ 108 2 11 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Resurrection of Lazarus 1897 ................................ .................. 109 2 12 Photograph of The Resurrection of Lazarus in progress, September August 1896. ....... 109 2 13 Lon Joseph Florentin Bonnat, The Resurrection of Lazarus 1857 ............................... 110 2 14 The Life of Christ, 1886 1 894. ............... 110 2 15 Jean Joseph Benjamin 1899 ................... 111 2 16 Rembrandt van Rijn, The Raising of Lazarus 1642 ................................ ........................ 111 2 17 Rembrandt van Rijn, The Raising of Lazarus ca 1630 ................................ .................. 112 2 18 Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, Deposit ion of Christ, 1603 ................................ .. 112 2 19 Gustave Courbet, Burial at Ornans 1849 1850 ................................ ............................. 113 2 20 Rembrandt van Rijn, ca 1635 ................................ ......................... 113 2 21 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Christ at the Home of Lazarus (lost painting with self portrait) n.d. ................................ ................................ ................................ ..................... 114

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9 2 22 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Study (Self Portrait) for Christ at the Home of Lazarus, graphite on paper, n.d ................................ ................................ ................................ ...... 114 3 1 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Christ at the Home of Lazarus n.d. ................................ .......... 151 3 2 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Atherton Curtis with Still Life nd ..... 151 3 3 Fra Angelico, Annunciation ca. 144 0 ................................ ................................ ............ 152 3 4 Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Annunciation 1898. ................................ ........................... 152 3 5 Sandro Botticelli, The Castello Annunciation, 1489 1490 ................................ ............. 153 3 6 Edward Burne Jones, The Annunciation 1876 1879 ................................ ..................... 153 3 7 Fra Angelico, Coronation of the Virgin, 1437 1446 ................................ ........................ 154 3 8 Henry Ossawa Tanner, La Sainte Marie ca 1898 1900 ................................ ................. 154 3 9 Pascal Jean Dagnan Bouveret, Madonna and the Rose, 1885 ................................ ....... 155 3 10 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Mary Journal January 1903. ................................ ................................ ................................ ..... 155 3 11 Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Disciples See Christ Walking on the Water ca. 1907 ........ 156 3 12 Rembrandt van Rijn, Storm on the Sea of Galilee 1633 ................................ ................ 156 3 13 Franois Boucher, St. Peter Invited to Walk on the Water 1766.. ................................ .. 157 3 14 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Christ Walking on the Water, 1910 ................................ ........... 157 3 15 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Miraculous Haul of Fishes, ca. 1913 1914 ............................... 158 3 16 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Detail of Miraculous Haul of Fishes ca. 1913 1914. ................ 158 3 17 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Salome ca. 1900 ................................ ................................ ....... 159 3 18 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Christ and His Mother Studying the Scriptures, ca. 1909 .......... 159 3 19 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Photographic study for Christ and His Mother Studying the Scriptures, ca. 1909 ................................ ................................ ................................ ......... 160 4 1 Hilda Rix Nicholas, Bringing in the Sheep, ca. 1936 ................................ ..................... 216 4 2 Aby Altson, Flood Sufferings 1890 ................................ ................................ ............... 216 4 3 Tom Roberts, 1886 ................................ ................................ .......... 217

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10 4 4 Jane Sutherland, Two Figures in a Field (The Mushroom Gatherers), ca. 1895. ........... 217 4 5 Hilda Rix Nic 1909 .............. 218 4 6 Hilda Rix Nic 1909 ............. 218 4 7 Hilda Rix Nic ........................... 219 4 8 Richard Miller, The Necklace 1909 ................................ ................................ ............... 219 4 9 Hilda Rix Nicholas, The Pink Scarf 1913 ................................ ................................ ...... 220 4 10 Richard Miller, Study for the Necklace n.d. ................................ ................................ ... 220 4 11 Emmanuel Phillips Fox Art students, 1895 ................................ ................................ .... 221 4 12 Emmanuel Phillips Fox Nasturtiums, ca. 1912 ................................ .............................. 221 4 13 Hilda Rix Nicholas, Fruit Market, Etaples I ca. 1901 ................................ ................... 222 4 1 4 William Adolphe Bouguereau, The Broken Pitcher, 1891 ................................ ............ 222 4 15 Hilda Rix Nicholas, Work, 1911. ................................ ................................ ..................... 223 4 16 Myron Barlow, Scaling Fish n.d ................................ ................................ .................... 223 4 17 Myron Barlow, Gathering Apples n.d ................................ ................................ ............ 224 4 18 Hilda Rix Nicholas, Grandmre 1914.. ................................ ................................ .......... 224 4 19 Hilda Rix Nicholas, Mother of France, 1914. ................................ ................................ 225 4 20 Emmanuel Phillips Fox, Eighty Five Years 1891 ................................ ........................... 225 5 1 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Nicodemus Visiting Jesus 1899 ................................ ................ 264 5 2 Jean Joseph Benjamin Constant, Evening on the Terrace (Morocco) 187 9. ................. 264 5 3 Jean Joseph Benjamin Constant, Arabian Nights, n.d ................................ .................... 265 5 4 Jean Lon Grme, Snake Charmer ca. 1879 ................................ ............................... 265 5 5 Henry Ossawa Tanner, In Constantine ca. 1908 ................................ ............................ 266 5 6 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Flight into Egypt: Palais de Justice, Tangier, ca. 1908 ............ 266 5 7 Photographic postcard of the Palais de Justice, Tangier ca. 1900. ................................ 267 5 8 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Detail of surface, Flight into Egypt ca. 1908. ........................... 267

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11 5 9 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Detail of holy family, detail Flight in to Egypt, 1908. ............... 268 5 10 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Entrance to the Casbah 1912 ................................ ................... 268 5 11 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Flight into Egypt 1923 ................................ .............................. 2 69 6 1 Emanuel Phillips Fox, Street in Morocco ca. 1911 ................................ ....................... 306 6 2 Hilda Rix Nicholas, Moroccan loggia, 1912 ................................ ................................ .. 306 6 3 Hilda Rix Nicholas, Through the arch to the sea 1912 1914 ................................ ........ 307 6 4 Ethel Carrick Fox, Moroccan Street, ca. 1911 ................................ ................................ 307 6 5 Hilda Rix Nicholas, Marchands de charbon de bois (The Charcoal Sellers), 1912 ....... 308 6 6 Unknown photographer, Hilda Rix sketching in the Grand Socco, Tangier, 1914. ........ 308 6 7 Hilda Rix Arab Women at Market, 1912 19 14 ................................ ............................... 309 6 8 Hilda Rix Nicholas, An African Slave Woman, 1914.. ................................ .................... 309 6 9 Hilda Rix Nicholas, A Negro Woman Morocco, 1914 ................................ .................... 310 6 10 Marie Guillemine Benoist, Portrait d'une ngresse 1800.. ................................ ............ 310 6 11 Jean Lon Grme, Moorish Bath 1870 ................................ ................................ ........ 311 6 12 Hilda Rix Nicholas, Camouflage 1914 ................................ ................................ ........... 311 7 1 Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Arch 1919 ................................ ................................ .......... 327 7 2 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Detail of Mother and Child The Arch 1919. ............................. 327 7 3 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Detail of Two Veterans in Uniform, The Arch, 1919. ............... 328 7 4 Hilda Rix Nicholas, These gave the world away, 1917 ................................ .................. 328 7 5 Hilda Rix Nicholas, Angle of Death 1917.. ................................ ................................ .... 329

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12 Abstract of D issertation Presented to the Graduate School of the University of Florida in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy THE ART OF BECOMING: MIMICRY, AMBIVALENCE, AND ORIENTALISM IN THE WORK OF HENRY OSS AWA TANNER AND HILDA RIX By Laura M. Winn December 2018 Chair: Melissa L. Hyde Major: Art History In 191 2, the African American painter Henry Ossawa Tanner, and the asp iring female Australian artist Hilda Rix, traveled together to colonial Morocco. T he artistic pilgrimage was hardly unique for European trained artists during the ea rly twentieth century, companions on this journey. The dissertation themselves and their art within Belle poque culture by str ategically mimicking the dominant traditions of fine art, a desire that ultimately led them to North Africa in the years leading up to the First World War. ropean academic ateliers and fine art tradition inspired them to set their sights on North Africa, as it represented both a geographic and conceptual space in which they had the freedom and western authority to create an image of exotic otherness that satisfied a sense agency and s elf affirmation. The artists uniquely conceived of and portrayed Morocco as a site of escape and artistic fulfillment, creating imagery that ambivalently reinforced, but also rejecte d, colonial ideology resulting in an unresolved dialectic of Orientalism and Counter Orientalis m.

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13 Rix and Tanne relationship with white patriarchal art systems are examined through the postcolonial and feminist psychoanalytic conc ept of mimicry drawn from the theories of Homi Bhabha and Lu ce Irigaray. The m imicry of prevailing forms of language, systems of knowledge, and authoritative cultural practices performed by those othered and po sitioned outside these systems acquires pote ntially parodic and subversive effects The dissertation highlights the successes, but also the limitations of a strategy that facilitated their entry into Belle poque art, but one that also reveals their struggle and ambivalence in attem pting to work within a system that was designed to exclude them.

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14 CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION In late January of 1912, the African American painter, Henry Ossawa Tanner and the aspiring female Australian artist, Hilda Rix 1 embarked on an artistic pilgri mage to Morocco of taples in Picardie, which they had come to rely upon and regard as a surrogate home. 2 Their small entourage traveled from northern France to Spain and across the Straight of Gibraltar to the Moroccan Port of Tangier in early February. 3 While the Rix t rained artists during the early twentieth century, when compared to archetypal Orientalist painters, most famously Eug ne Delacroix and Jean gender made them unconventional Orientalists and exceptional travel and w ork companions on this journey. backgrou nds and formative experiences in America and Australia, which contributed to an understanding of their status and otherness within Belle poque society as structured within a matrix of class, race, gender, and colonial hierarchies. Collectively in America, Australia, and 1 The artist is known today as Hilda Rix Nicholas, a title she adopted and used throughout her professional career after her marriage to Captain George Matson Nicholas in 1916, who was killed in action in World War One. I will den name throughout the dissertation, as the period of her career I am concerned with predates her marriage to Captain Nicholas. While maintaining an artistic identity as Hilda Rix Nicholas, in her personal life and legal matters, the artist went by the na me Hilda Rix Wright following her second marriage to grazier Edgar Wright in 1928. 2 In January 2016, the Picardie region of France was combined with the Nord Pas de Calais region to form the new Hauts de France. Trpied and taples are now part of the Pa s de Calais Department of the Hauts de France Region 3 The Rix Tanner party traveled from France to Madrid, Cordoba, and Algeciras. The original plan was to cross to Tangier from Algeciras but the weather was too poor, which forced them to Gibraltar for t he rough crossing to the port of Tangier. Jeanette Hoorne, (Melbourne, VIC: The Mieguyan Press, 2012), 62.

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15 Europe, the prestigious cultural institutions that Tanner and Rix sought access to and participation within, historically defined and defended the identity of Artist as exclusively white and male, situating them squarely outside the norms a nd trad itions of the fine art system. Throughout their long and evolutionary careers, Rix and Tanner confronted and defied the categorical otherness assigned to them by strategically emulating, appropriation, rejecting, and correcting the subject matter, p ictorial strategies, and artistic practices of their white male sphere of Belle poque fine art while simultaneously challenging its exclusive whiteness and mal enes s, created tension s within their work between the emulation of ideal subjects, models, and forms defined by traditional art and the mimicry or mocking of these ideals through subtle alterations and corrections to these of traditional imagery work to expose these ideals as misrepresentations fabricated and replicated for the maintenance of white patriarchal authority. A cursory review of diverse and disparate subjects and styles that make up Henry Ossawa Tanner and Hilda lives and work briefly intersected in the years immediately preceding the First World War. The two artists met when Rix, accompanied by her sister and mother, took up residence in the rural art colony of taples the summer of 1910. Tanner, an established artist in France, was viewed as a leader of this colony and the organization the Socit Artistique de Picardie 4 mentorship of the younger Rix culminated in his chapero ning of the aspiring antipodean artist to Morocco the winter through early spring of 1912. 4 Jean Claude Lesage. Peintres amricains en Pas de Calais: la colonie d'taples (St. Josse sur Mer: A.M.M.E. editions, 2007).

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16 The imagery they produced in North Africa demonstrates that these unconventional Orientalists and travel companions learned from and influenced one another, but more striking is that despite their personal connections in was remarkably individual. The difference in their approaches to portraying the Moroccan landscape, people, and customs speaks to the multifarious and hybr id nature of Orientalism. Highlighting this hybridity challenges the Saidian framework of a unified hierarchal East/West binary employed to priv ilege the white male colonizer. The originality tural producers in Morocco, demonstrates that Orientalism is anything but monolithic. Furthermore to appropriated and mimicked the traditions of Orientalism, res ulting in an unresolved dialectic of Orientalism and Counter Orientalism. Working during a period that pre dated the emergence of postmodern, postcolonial O rientalism as efforts to make visible the fissures in the binaries that structur ed white patriarchal authority, which despite the conservative aspects of their academic training and subject matter, reveals them as radically forward thinking for their time. To highlight the diverse strategies the artists adopted to gain access to and negotiate their status within the dominant institutions and discourses of Belle poque fine art, this study will Australia, and their maturation within European academic ateliers and fine art traditions. These experiences ultimately inspired the artists to set their sights on North Africa, as it represented both a geographic and conceptual space in which they had the freedom a nd western authority to create an image of exotic otherness that fulfilled a sense agency and self affirmation. Hilda Rix

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17 and Henry Tanne will be central to the dissertation, but their travel to Morocco is indicative of their larger artistic project to leverage the power of traditional art in order to overcome the societal Tanner and Rix lived and worked in a world that preferred they remain silent and invi sible, instead these artists dedicated their lives to a profession and sought to contribute to a culture that was structured to maintain the authority and normativity of white men. Far from resigning themselves to careers in commercial art or acquiescing t o a devaluation of their talents as amateur artists, Hilda Rix and Henry Tanner refused the marginalized position assigned to them and instead chose the ambitious and difficult mission to enter into the spaces and discourses of the elite and conservative f ine art of their generation. 5 6 it can wa s hostile to their race and gender, but their art is also a visual record that insists upon their presence within Belle poque fine art, visualizing their complex and conflicted process in Previous Scholarship and A pproaches to Henry Os sawa Tanner and Hilda Rix During the height of their careers, both Hilda Rix and Henry Tanner were the subjects of critical appraisal receiving accolades reserved for those deemed exceptional by the conservative 5 ol in London, had committed herself to illustration and poster design vital, vivid and virile sphere of pub art, as opposed to the perfumed playground afforded other female artists by jour nals like the Home the fact of her womanhood would have been all the more remarkable. Instead, her art Paris to Monaro: Pleasures from the Studio of Hilda Rix Nicholas (Canberra, ACT: National Portrait Gallery, 2015 ), 87. 6 Becoming a Woman in the Age of Enlightenment: French Art from the Horvitz Collection, edited by Melissa Hyde, Mary Sheriff, and Alvin Clark Jr., 87 108 (Boston, MA: The Ho rvitz Collection, 2017), 105.

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18 gatekeepers of culture. 7 After the 1920s, ho wever, their work and accomplishments were overshadowed for the majority of the twentieth century. The studies and exhibitions in which the artists appeared before the last decade of the twentieth century were traditionally surveys and compilations of Afri can American or Australian Women artists. 8 This tendency demonstrates the normative whiteness and maleness that structures the discipline of art history, in that to receive scholarly attention, Tanner and Rix were classified, not by the style or content of their art, but 9 The question of how to best recognize and produce meaningful discourse 7 For example, Henry Ossawa Tanner was elected president of the Socit Artistique de Picardie in 1913, made a Chevalier of Legion of Honor by French government in 1923, elected a full academician of National Academy of Design (NY) in 1927, and was the recipient of numerous awards for the exhibition of his work in Europe and the United States. Hilda Rix Nicholas was made an Associate of the Socit Nationale des Beaux Arts in 1926. 8 In their foundational texts on African Amer ican art, Alain Locke in The Negro in Art, first published in 1940 and American Negro Art, recognized Tanner as one of the first great African American artists, but at times described his contributions unfavorably due to his choice to remain in Europe instead of advancing and advocating more forcefully for black artists at home. See Alain Locke, The Negro in Art; A Pictorial Record of the Negro artist and of the Negro theme in art (NY: Hacker Art Books, Inc., 1940, reprinted 1971), 9 a nd Cedric Dover, American Negro Art (Greenwich, CT:1960), 29. Surveys and exhibitions of African American art from the second half of the twentieth century include: Richard Powell, Black Art : A Cultural History (NY: Thames & Hudson, 2002), Powell, The Blue s Aesthetic: Black Culture and Modernism (Washington, DC: Washington Project for the Arts, 1989), Sharon Patton, African American Art (NY: Oxford University Press, 1998), David Driskell, Simon Leonard, Two Centuries of Black American Art (Los Angeles: LA C ounty Museum of Art and Alfred A. Knopf, Inc, 1976), David Driskell, Hidden Heritage: Afro American Art 1800 1950 (Bellevue: Washington, Bellevue Art Museum, 1985), Elsa Honig Fine, The Afro American Artist: A Search for Identity. (NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1973), and Guy McElroy, Richard J. Powell, Sharon F. Patton, David C. Driskell, African American Artists 1880 1987, Selections from the Evan Tibbs Collection (Washington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1989), Leslie King, Ritual and Myth: A Su rvey of African American Art (New York: 1982), Gylbert Coker and Corrine Jennings, African American Art: The Harmon and Harriet Kelley Collection (San Antonio: San Antonio Museum of Art, 1994), James Porter, Modern Negro Art (NY: Arno Press, 1969), and Al bert Boime, The Art of Exclusion : Representing Blacks in the Nineteenth Century (Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1990).The scholarship on Australian women artists, which includes Hilda Rix is more limited. See Janie Burke, Australian Women A rtists (Richmond, VIC: Greenhouse Publications Pty Ltd, 1980), Caroline Ambrus, The Ladies Picture Show: Sources on a Century of Australian Women Artists (Sydney, NSW: Hale & Iremonger,1984), Jeanette Hoorn, edited, Strange Women: Essays in Art and Gender (Melbourne, VIC: University of Melbourne Press, 1994). 9 relationship with race and his African lineage have served as a major focus of the scholarship. See Albert Art Bulletin 75, no. 3 (Septe mber 1993): 415 442, Will Nineteenth Century Art Worldwide vol. South's "A Missin Nineteenth Century Art Worldwide Journal of Black Studies v ol. 42, no. 6 (2011): 887 905.

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19 concerning women and artists of color is a challenge that art his torians continue to struggle with today. 10 The methodological questions that feminist and black art history face converge in the debate whether to write an alternate history that highlights the accomplishments of black and women artists, which is separate f rom traditional history of art, or to attempt to integrate women and artists of color into the dominant white patriarchal narrative. While efforts to rehabilitate and bla ck or women artists are admirable in their consciousness raising efforts, these subaltern histories do little to disrupt the traditional canon of art history or challenge the ideological whiteness or mal eness of the discipline itself. This study will adopt the latter approach in an effort to offer a history of Henry Tanner and Hilda Rix that is inclusive, intersectional, and interconnected by situating them within, and illuminating how they responded to the tradition of f ine art and Orientalism as a means t o underscore the contributions they made to these discourses. My aim is to highlight, but also problematize, how Tanner and Rix navigated and negotiated white patriarchal culture to r identity was at times an integral motivating factor for their creative efforts, but ultimately was not the reason for their art. The first monograph detailing the art of Hilda Rix was made available in 2000 by Australian art historian John Pigot. Since the publication of Hilda Rix Nicholas: Her Life and 10 See Kirsten Pai Buick, Subject (Duke University Press: Durham, NC, 2010), 32 33.

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20 Art the artist has reemerged as a notable figure in the history of Australian art. 11 Pigot worked with Rix Wright , and drew much of h personal archive, wh ich was acqu ired by The National Library of Australia in 2003. 12 Similarly, archive, a first substantial study and biography on Henry Tanner in the 1969, Henry Ossawa Tanner: American Artist. 13 of which 1978, s life from the African American perspective was published in 1991 11 e 2012, Art compiled by Karen Johnson elbourne, London, and Paris. Paris to Monaro: Pleasures from the Studio of Hilda Rix Nicholas offers an accompanied the exhibition of these same objects and selected works of art for a show that highlighted the artist for the first time in the National Portrai t Gallery in Canberra. Karen Johnson, Sketchbook Art (Canberra, ACT: National Library of Australia, 2012). 12 granddaughter Bronwyn Wright is the trustee and caretaker of the Rix Nicholas estate including the maintenance 13 Marcia M. Mathews, Henry Ossawa Tanner: American Artist (Chicago: University of Chi cago Press, 1969). A accompanied the Henry Ossawa Tanner exhibition at the Philadelphia Museum of Fine Art. See Alexander Minter, Henry Ossawa Tanner edited by Dewey Mosby, 23 33 s foundational biography and Alexander dicated to Tanner, the first appeared in 1960 by Walter Augustus Simon and later in 1987 by Naurice Frank Woods Jr., who continues to contribute scholarship on n culture. Walter A Study of the Development of an American Negro Artist: 1859 Ph.D. Dissertation, Col umbia Pacific University, 1987.

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21 Alexander project many years earlier. 14 The monographic studies authored by Pigot and Mathews provided a narrative arc of the that do a great service in helping to situate them within the context of the early twentieth century and mainstream artistic trends. These texts contributed to a rehabilitation of the oeuvres. However, in s and work were intended to be informative and biographical rather than critical. This dissertation seeks to build upon and advance these earlier monographs and biography as a methodology, by incorporating a and lived experiences through postmodern and intersectional approaches. 15 Scholarship on Henry Tanner continues to focus on his relationshi p with race and religion, circumscribing a discussion of his Orientalism as relative to these positions. An example of this approach attempt s to place in dialogue wit h the 14 her biography of the artist, Rae Alexander s accou nt of Henry Ossawa Tanner was published in 1969, talked only briefly with my mother [Sadie Tanner Mossell Alexander] and never on race relations in this country. Certainly the story as told by Mathews is more comforting than the one told by mother, which shows how slavery tore at the fabric of the black family. See Alexander 15 For instance, although outside the scope of this dissertation, while recognizing that Hilda Rix Nicholas was progressive in her challenge of the gender bias fostered in institutions of high culture a project that was made especially clear after her ret urn to Australia and the frustration she encountered in attempting to negotiate the conservative antipodean art world her concept of race and apathy for the plight of indigenous Australians, which manifested itself in their erasure from her nationalistic p aintings of idealized pastoral, bush life, is a concern that needs to be problematized and interrogated further.

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22 16 the North African Orient in the concert ed effort to elevate and define a black identity through as an extension of his black genre paintings. 17 I am skeptical of this conclusion, as Childs admits tha 18 two discourses attempting to come to terms with difference, sameness, history and the unwieldy 19 unders cores the complex negotiation of gender, racial, religious, and colonial bin oeuvre. biblical Orientalism has helped to define my approach to these paintings. Braddock draws from Homi Bhab racial classifications enforced by white society. Through a portrayal of what Braddock interprets 16 Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit the most recent comprehensive and critical organized by the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art between 2012 and 2013. The exhibition and catalog was organized and edited by Anna O. Marley, which features a diverse set of appro collaboration of American Art scholars and curators contributed to the catalog providing an inquiry that addresses his Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit edited by Anna O. Marley, 98 108 (LA: University of California Press, 2012), 99. 17 18 19

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23 theory of cultural hybridity to explain how Tanner attempted to visualize the complexities of race during the early twentieth century. 20 In his analysis, Braddock identifies racial hybridity in t does not attend to the issue Orient, which provides him the privilege to appropriate and shape the Oriental Other to fit his ideological and religious ideals. The he nationalistic pastoral imagery of Australia, which became her signature after the First World War. Beginning emphasize her Oriental ist work by curating an exhibition that coupled the image ry she completed in Morocco between 1912 and 1914 with that of the English Australian painter Ethel Carrick. 21 distinguish the role women played in the creation of Orientalism, as many women did travel, write, and create art in North A frica and the Middle East. Yet, reflective in how s to the fine art s and crafts have been purged from the history of art, the work of women Orientalists has receive d little interest until the last decade of the twentieth cent ury 22 20 Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit edited by Anna O. Marley, 135 146 (LA: University of California Press, Nineteenth Century Art Worldwide vol. 15, issue 3 (Autumn 2016). 21 John Pigot, Capturing the Orient: Hilda Rix Nicholas and Ethel Carrick in The East (Waverley, VIC: Waverly Strange Women: Essays in Art and Gend er, edited by Jeanette Hoorn, 155 168 (Melbourne, VIC: Melbourne University Press, 1994). 22 See Antoinette Burton, Burdens of History: British Feminists, Indian Women, and Imperial Culture, 1865 1915 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1 994), Sara Mills, Discourses of Difference: an Analysis of Women's Travel Writing and Colonialism (NY: Routledge, 1991), Reina Lewis, Gendering Orientalism: Race, Femininity, and Representation (NY: Routledge, 1996), Lisa Lowe, Critical Terrains: French an d British Orientalisms (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991), Jill Beaulieu and Mary Roberts, Interlocutors: Painting, Architecture, Photography ( Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002), Mary Roberts, Intimate Outsiders: The Harem in Ottoman and Orientalist Art and Travel Literature (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007), Meyda Colonial Fantasies: Toward a Feminist Reading of Orientalism (NY: Cambridge University Press, 1998).

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24 Saidian approach, which defined Orientalism as a system of textual and visual discourse that represents, and often misrepresents, the East as an expression of western hegemony. Accordingly, Pigo t identified Rix and Carrick as complicit co conspirators within the out to challenge the well constructed patriarchal framework of orientalist discourse but c hose to 23 the women agues, 24 He identified this different point of view as expressed through the subjects that were appropriate and acce ssible for the women to portray. While odalisques and harem scenes were off limits for these respectable bourgeois women, Pigot linked with their western authorit male colonial gaze. 25 Problematically, in his analysis of from that of their male colleagues, except with respect to their choice in subject matter. The reader is left to conclude 23 Pigot, Capturing the Orient 5. 24 Ibid. 25 African imagery.

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25 reinscribing into the inherently patriarchal and polemical discourse of Saidian Ori entalism Proposing edit and publish the correspondence that Hilda and her older sister Elsie Rix wrote from Morocco during the 1912 and 1914 artistic expeditions. 26 After his death colleague and art historian, Jeanette Hoorn, took over and reshaped the project in several ways. According to Hoorn, Elsie contributed nearly 70 per cent of the correspondence from the 1914 i ve character to her sist 27 imagery, not as being subsumed by the patriarchal structure of Orientalism, but rather creating a form of Counter Orientalism that resisted the stere otypical masculine predispositions of this the Grand Soko of Tangier and her desire to sketch quotidian scenes of daily life clarity and realism as an aspect of her Counter 26 This ext ensive correspondence is now preserved as part of the Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS 9817, National Library of Australia, Canberra, ACT. 27 Mor occo, but there is no discussion of Elsie as an individual. She is a chronicler of events whose letter are quoted to In order to do Elsie justice, Hoorn changed the title of Pi Letters from Tangiers, Hilda Rix Nicholas in Morocco to Hilda Rix Hoorn laments that in the 1993 exhibition catalog ative of Hilda Rix and Ethel Carrick, which suggested they traveled to North Africa together, when in reality their expeditions were made years apart. Ethel Carrick first traveled to North Africa in 1909 when she visited Tunisia with her husband, the Austr alian painter Emanuel Phillips Impact of the Modern: Vernacular Modernities in Australia 1870s 1960s edited by Robert Dixon and Veronica Kell y, 38 51 ( Sydney, NSW: Sydney University Press), 43 and fn 8.

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26 devotion to realism and her rejection of sensational, mythological, or erotic subjects common in eminine perspective of Morocco. Gendering Orientalism which examines the difficulties and contradictions female artists and authors encountered in creating Orientalism, Hoorn acknowledges the conflict that resonates within Hilda and Elsie Rix West and a participation in the gendered counter discourse against orientalism that had emerged in the work of other women across the 28 s nuanced ap heir scholarship has been influential in shaping my feminist per evidence in how they exercised their privilege an d revealed their colonial bias. Hoorn grants both Hilda and Elsie Rix a far greater degree of cultural sympathy for the Moroccan pe ople they interact with and describe than I believe the textual and visual documents herself to creating anti Orientalist imagery, instead I view the inconsistenci es and contradictions that are wrought throughout her work are indicative of an ambivalence in appropriating and mimicking patriarchal models, which created a dialectic tension between her Orientalist and Counter Orientalist desires. ntalism will attempt to establish what I consider the messy reality, 28 Hoorn Moroccan Idyll 193.

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27 will call on Reina the heterogeneity and transgressive aspects of Orientalism created by outsiders, like Rix and Tanner, while also adopting the postcolonial concepts of mimicry and hybridity p roposed by Homi Bhabha. 29 Orientalism and its Interlocutors Orientalism is a critical intellectual history that revealed the ways the West invented the idea of the Orient through the discursive production of textual and visual representations intended to demonstrate cultural and political hegemony over the East. 30 succinctly defined by feminist and postcolonial author, 31 text m arked the beginning of postcolonial theory, in its aim to expose the suppressed and unacknowledged forces that motivated and suppor ted Oriental discourse as a strategy of misrepresentation for colonial, political and economic gains. He argued that the ught based upon an ontological and epistemological the Occident. 32 Five years after the publication of Orientalism, art historian Linda Noch lin embraced nd entrenched practice and rejection of postmodern critiques by analyzing nineteenth century European Orientalist painting through the ahistorical lens of stylistic affinities and formal 29 Homi Bhabha, The Location of Culture 2 nd edition (NY, Routledge, 2014). 30 Edward Said, Orientalism (New York: Vintage Books, 1978). 31 Colonial Fant asies 1. 32 Said, Orientalism, 2.

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28 considered how the political, raced, and gendered binary structures of colonialism shaped the creation of Orientalist imagery. 33 introducing the psychoanalytic and visual theory of the Gaze, and putting this theory into effect in her analysis of Orientalist paintings. valuable in revealing the purposeful misrepresentation and power dynamics at play in the creation of colonial discou rse; however, their studies and the many subsequent inquiries they inspired rely on the oppo sing binary positions of Subject /Object and Occident /Orient which has itself been the subject of critique. Nochlin herself gestures to ifying the Orient as a fabricated idea and as a geographic site course, there is Orientalism and Orientalism. If for painters like Grme the Near East existed as an actual place to be mystified with effects of realness, for other artists it existed as a project of the imagination, a fantasy space or screen onto which strong desires erotic, sadistic, or both 34 Since the 1978 publication Orientalism n the East and West has received both wide reac hing interdisciplinary application and critique revealing that the concept of Orientalism itself has never been unified. 35 While I find that Saidian Orientalism remains a useful theory to explore the power dyn amics and strategies the Occident deployed to shape perceptions of both a real and imagined hegemony over the East during 33 Linda Nochlin. in The Politics of Vision: Essays on Nineteenth Century Art and Society, edited Linda Nochlin, 33 59 (NY: Harpers and Row, 1989). 34 35 Sch include the anthropologist James Clifford and historian of imperialism, John Mackenzie, Ali Behdad, W. J. T. Mitchell, Ania Loomba, Sara Mills, and David has been criticized as unnecessarily polemic, as it creates a power structure in which the West has unchallenged dominance and control over a silent and subservient East.

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29 colonialism, this paradigm must be revised to acknowledge the dynamic and hybrid relationships and encounters that occurred between a heterogeneous East and West and Self and Other. Among my disagreements with Saidian Orientalism is that it does not account for the role of women, people of color, or any individual deemed an outsider to normative culture as official producers of Orient al discourse worthy of study. It denies the possibility that Others, situated outside the traditions and classifications of white patriarchal discourses, including ado ption of the Foucauldian concept of discourse, as relating to the structure of thinking and producing meaning within larger cultural political systems, underestimates t he ways in which Orientalism may not be politically motivated, but deeply personal. Whil e political and personal motivations of Orientalism are not mutually exclusive, I would argue that although Rix and Tanner benefited from their western status within colonialism, their art was not intended to advocate or support colonial policies, but inst ead to advance their own tenuous po sition in Belle poque culture. reinforce prejudices and colonization o f Africa, however, they did nothing to challenge the identity of the Orientalist as anything but white and male. The scholars only considered women and people of color as exotic subject matter for white male artists and authors. The feminist critiques of O rientalism that followed substantiated the existence of a female presence in imperial discourse. 36 Tanner and in Morocco and the text and imagery that resulted disrupt the assumption of an exclusive white male gaze and authorship over the Orie nt. 36 See footnote 2 2.

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30 The intersectional perspective embraced by Reina Lewis in her 1996 Gendering Orientalism explores the work of unconventional Orientalist authors and artists approach is extremely valuable in identifying and understanding the ambivalent desires that the hierarchal binaries of gender, race, and nationality in Morocco. Her study was motivated by a recognition of the limitations a Saidian critique of the c olonial, racial, and gendered categories difficult situations to simple oppositions, it is one of the pressing needs of our time to understand the contradiction s inherent in the relationships between these differentiating terms and our 37 Lewis, revisions to the binary model of Saidian Orientalism proposed by post colonial scholar Homi Bhabha will be employed to theoretical ly within the colonial concepts of mimicry and hybridity. Bhabha, among others, took issue with ramework allows suggesting that cultural and political authority is only located with the West and that the Orient has no capacity to resist the Occidental representations, or alternatively represent themselves. 38 Additionally, Bhabha recognizes the ways in which the Orient/Occident and Self/Other binaries are not fixed or unified, but instead intersect and overlap in ways that creates anxiety in the colonizer. This 37 Lewis, Gendering Orientalism 1. 38 The Location of Culture 103. Roger Benjamin adopts a twentieth adoption of dominant wh ite patriarchal artistic practices, Benjamin highlights the ways in which Mammeri and Racim negotiate their artistic identities between French and Maghrebian traditions for potentially subversive effect. Roger Benjamin, Orientalist Aesthetics: Art, Colonia lism, and French North Africa, 1880 1930 (Berkeley: University of Califorina Press, 2003).

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31 anxiety is created by the inconsistencies and slippages of colonial mimicry that expose the wrought throughout the colonial enterprise that Bhabha explores are analogous to the conflicted process Tanner and Rix undertake in the fashioning of their artisti c identities, and their unstable place within the fiel d of white patriarchal culture. definition of Orientalism that acknowledge s what professor of comparative literature Lisa Lowe has identified 39 For the purposes of this study, Orientalism constitutes both a conceptual process and an ideological product, which entails the portrayal of the East real imagined, and virtual intended for an Occidental audience as a form of self affirmation. 40 T h is definition recognize s that relationships of power are cultivated through visual and textual discourse and, as such, there is not hing about Orientalism that is objective or neutral. Moreover, the Orient and the Occident are never fixed identities or categories, but are mutable polysemic, and dynamic in responding to specific historical, cultural, and geogra phic needs. Defining Mim icry, Methods, and Purpose of Study portrayal of Morocco was enabled by colonialism, which granted them certain Occidental viewing rights and a position of power over the exotic people and landscape they portrayed. 39 Lisa Lowe, Critical Terrains 9. 40 This affirmation can be personal, political, cultural, and intellectual etc. The definition casts a broad net to include sci entifically empirically grounded studies as well as imagined fantasies, in addition to forms of mimicry and hy bridity that consider eastern individuals as potential creators of Orien tal discourse. Indigenous Orientalism is a form of mimicry that is especi ally powerful, exemplified by the Orientalist paintings of Osman Hamdi Bey, an Ottoman painter working under t he tutelage of Jean Lon Grme and the work of Algerian painters, Azouaou Mammeri and Mohammed Racim discussed by Benjamin in Orientalist Aesthet ics 221 248.

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32 Building on the existing scholarship of Henry Tanner and Hilda Rix, as well as feminist and psychoanalytic revisions to Saidian Orientalism, this study will investigate to create a space for themselves and their art through an engagement with, and a negotiation of and educational experiences in Australia and America that defined and motivate d their desire to participate in, and be legitimized by, the dominant institutions and practices of fine art, a desire, which ultimately led them to North Africa in the years lea ding up to the First World War. The advent of in the 1980s c hallenged scholars to reexamine and critique the systems of power that historically facilitated and supported the creation, dissemination, and reception of art, as well as the epistemology of canonical and narrative art history itself. Poststructuralist pe rspective s are important and necessary in revealing previously in interrogating larger systems and institutions, already marginalize d artists, like Tanner and Rix whose work was tied to their identity, continued to be neglected This study will employ biography as a met hod to highlight the experiences that shaped and motivated offering them a new level of complexity and nuance by integrating them into a cri tique of Belle poque artistic practice and Orientalism that takes into account feminist and postcolonial perspectives The artist certainly contributed to a devaluation of t heir efforts and legacy however, it is my aim to highlight how Rix and Tanner were not simply acted upon or unilaterally oppressed by white patriarchal culture but through strategic and even subversive choices were acti ve agents and negotiators of their place and identity in Belle poque art. x and ambivalent relationship with white patriarchal art systems will be framed through the postcolonial and feminist psychoanalytic concept of mimicry. The

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33 theories of Homi Bhabha and Luce Irigaray will provide a theoretical framework and field of play fo r Rix of dominant Belle poque artistic subjec ts, practices, and aesthetics. Bhabha and Irigaray have both identified the mimicry or mimtisme of prevailing forms of language, replication of systems of kno wledge, and authoritative cultural practices performed by those othered and positioned outside these systems, as an action that is potentially parodic and subversive. 41 largely a response to the psychoanalytic theory a nd symbolic binaries formulated by Jacques psychoanalysis and postcolonial literary studies, however, their ideas overlap and intersect in ways that I believe are va luable in offering a new lens through which to interpret and highlight ltural discourses of their age. Man: European colonialism, which made attempts to impose western culture and beliefs on colonized peoples as a form of dominance and display of cultural superiority. Important t concept of mimicry is identifying the ambivalence and contradictions in how the colonizer anguage, art, dress, and other 41 Luce Irigaray, This Sex Which is Not One translated by Catherine Porter (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1985), Irigaray, Speculum of the Other Woman translated by Gillian Gill (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1985) Homi Bhabh October, vol. 28 (Spring 1984) 125 Critical Inquiry vol. 12, no. 1 (Autum n 1985): 144 165. Both articles reproduced in The Location of Culture 2 nd edition.

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34 desire for a reformed, recognizable Other, as a subject of difference that is almost the same, but not quite Which is to say, tha t the discourse of mimicry is constructed around an ambivalence 42 Traditionally, the concept of mimicry has been used in postcolonial scholarship to describe the opportunistic acts of colonized peoples, who imitate the behavior, language, and cultural pr actices of their colonizers in an effort to access the symbolic promise of power these actions and knowledge represent. In most contexts, mimicry is interpreted as a negative practice because it requires the colonized individual to suppress their indigenou s culture and identity in order to replicate that of their oppressors. Bhabha, however, emphasizes that the inherent ambivalence within the process of colonial mimicry guarantees that the colonized subject will never be able to perfectly imitate, or achiev e a mimesis, of the dominant culture. Rather, the colonized individual imperfectly or mockingly reproduces western culture in a way that creates 43 In order to be effective, m imicry must continuously produce its slippage, its the reforming, civilizing mission is threatened by the displacing gaze of its ced by the ambivalence of but becomes transformed into an uncertainty which fixes the colonial subject as a feration of inappropriate objects that ensure its strategic failure, so that mimicry is at once resemblance and menace. 44 It is within these slippages the al most the same, but not quite where mimicry can manifest itself as subversive by highlighting the claims to a unified and authoritative system of culture and knowledge. In turn, the colonized 42 Bhabha, The Location of Culture, 122. 43 Ibid. 44 Ibid, 123.

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35 replication of the domina nt culture, serves as a protective camouflage masking the indigenous object that radically revalues the normative knowledges of the priority of race, writing, history. For the fetish mimes the forms of authority at the point at which it deauthorizes them. Similarly, 45 the colonized Other due to the confusion, contradicti ons, and ambivalence, all consequence s of their oppressor. He believes that while that mimicry creates a form of camouflage and destroys indigenous populations rarely capitalize on these slippages because they do not recognize that they are actually undermining the systems of power that oppress them. 46 Henry Tanner a nd Hilda Rix mimicked aspects of traditional fine art so that they might be legitimized by, and gain access to the power and privileg e of dominant cultural systems. The race and gender positioned them as outsiders to white patriarchal culture, the reby conceptually assuming the role of the colonized Other to white patriarchal cultural norms within with their ambition to travel to Europe and enter into the e steemed ateliers of B elle poque 45 Ibid, 129. 46 Ibid.

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3 6 France, effectively acculturated them to a system of artistic practice dominat ed by white men. This acculturation was enforced by the repetitive and emulative practices that structured fine art academic education in Europe since its establishment in sixteenth century Italy. At home and in France, Rix and Tan ner were encouraged to copy masterworks of the past, as well as imitate the subjects, practices, and aesthetics demonstrated by their white male teachers and mentors shap 47 predicated on the practices of emulation and mimicry, required that the Afri can American and female Australian artist mirror the whiteness and maleness of these Old World institutions. This complex strategy of reform, regulation and discipline 48 To understand Tanner a Orientalism as a form of mimicry, it is also necessary to consciousnes W.E.B. Du Bois coined the term to describe the psychological and cultural sel f splitting that plagued those in his case African Americans who sought access to, but stood outside the privilege and prestige of authoritative forms of culture. 49 For Bhabha, double conscious ness manifests itself as the ambivalent vacillation between desire and repulsion, acceptance and rejection, which colonized peoples struggle d with and which served as the motivating fa ctor for the mimicry of their cultural idea ls. My examination of Hilda Rix and Henry Tanner will demonstrate how they were torn between the conflicting projects of 47 Ibid, 122. 48 Ibid. 49 W.E.B Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications Inc., 1903 new edition 1994), 2 3.

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37 undermining the societal structures and cultural institutions that limited their professional success, while at the same time, striving to be accepted by these elite art establishments, not as a black or woman artist, but on the merit of their talents alone. While Rix and Tanner were squarely situated as outsiders to all forms of Belle poque white patriarchal culture and knowledge, it mu st also be recognized that as highly educated westerners they enjoyed far more agency and influence than the colonized Others Bhabha describes. As the following chapters will outline, in spite of the otherness attributed respectively to their race and gend er, Henry Tanner and Hilda Rix were fortun ate and even privileged in ways which helped to facilitate their acquisition of a fine arts education and travel abroad. Nevertheless, Rix and Tanner occupied a complex and uncertain in betweenness within the matri x of Belle poque social and cultural binaries and struggled with the uncertainty and ambivalence of their insider/outsider statuses. Despite their complex and tenuous statuses, unlike the colonial subjects who mimic ked their oppressors and often, but not always, remain ed unconscious of this subversive effect, I deployment of mimicry was one that would ultimately become intenti onally to challenge their own marginalized status, but also resistance of the ra cist and sexist facets o f white patriarchal art ambivalence in imitating and rejecting the models of dominant art facilitated their access to white patriarchal artistic discourse and enabled them to critique this discourse from within the system itself. While Bhabh l in

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38 examining how Hilda Rix struggled to negotiate a place for herself within the dominant patriarchal norms of Belle poque fine art. In her critique of the phallocentricism of traditional psychoanalysis and epistemological structures of philosophy, Irig aray describes the oppressed position women occupy within Freud ithin these systems meaning and identity are ascribed singularly through male subjectivity, as they possess the phallus. Irigaray elucidates that within the existing p sychoanalytic structure, because women lack the phallus, they can only constitute meaning and a sense of identity through their lack and a desire for wholeness (penis envy). Within patriarchy, men require the woman, as his Other, to act as a mirror that re flects his Self Same. Therefore, women per performance of this male subjectivity. 50 Within this framework, wome n have historically been assigned the role of mimicry or 51 Hilary Robinson, scholar of fe minist theory and art, and a uthor of Reading Art, Reading Irigaray outlines the bleak position women have been assigned within traditional psychoanalytic str to mimic men and the phallic Sym bolic 52 50 Irigaray, This Sex Which Is Not One 152. 51 Hilary Robinson, Reading Art, Reading Irigary: The Politics of Art by Women (I.B. Tauris: New York, 2006), 28. 52 Robinson elaborates on this further when stati approach that would be akin to desiring a bigger slice of a poisonous pie [al la Lucy Lippard] or to deny that gender Reading Art, Reading Irigaray 41.

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39 According to the role of mimic assigned to women, Rix is expected to mirror and ambition as amateur image makers or commit themselves to lower genres and subjects, such as art as different and subsequently marginalized in relation to Art defined and created by men. colonized individual, Rix was forced to mirror the Self Same of male artists, reproducing ideology and subject matter that subjugated women (stereotyp ed female subjects or nudes), which reinforced male authority. The imitative and emulative pedagogy of patriarchal art enforced by academic education is a kin to the unconscious mimicry of colonized peoples, as eir replication and reinforcement of the col In her critique of traditional psychoanalysis, Irigaray refutes the logic that woman is fixed in a position of lack on the basis that she does not have what is like a man ( the phall us) and instead identifies mimesis as a strategy that has the potential to disrupt the unity of patriarchal reflection to itself. 53 This means that women perform the mimetic role assigned to them, but doing so in a manner that is deliberate and self conscio us. She argues that women can acquire a sense of subjectivity by performing fe mininity in a way that converts 54 Irigaray identifies two potential paths through which women can br eak the closed and repetitive cycle of mirroring the male/phallus Self Same: mimicry a nd hysteria. 53 Irigaray, Speculum of the Other Woman, 52. 54 Irigaray, This S ex Which is Not One 76.

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40 As part of her interrogation of the patriarchal structuring of philosophy and psychology, Irigaray draws her definition of mimesis from that of classical ant iquity to expose the to the ma le subject. Irigaray reexamines philosophy on mimesis referencing Book X of the Republic The adoption of a classical text is noteworthy as it provides an ancient histor ical example for the foundational thinking of mimesis as subversive or potentially dangerous to the ideals of white patriarchal (Athenian) culture and knowledge. Plato was hostile to the visual arts because he recognized that achieving a perfect copy, o r m imesis, of nature was impossible 55 While both Plato and Irigaray recognize d Plato perceived mimesis as potentially dangerous because through the process of imitation, the crea tor can alter the model in w ays that changes its original meaning and therefore its truthfulness He fears the slippage between the real or authentic and its representation, because citizens may mistake or begin to associate t he simulacrum for the thing itself 56 In turn, through mime sis, Irigaray sees an opportunity for women to mimic the role men have assigned to them, but perform it in a way that mocks male ultimately enables the Other /Woman to dismantle patriarchal power. By participating in traditional artistic discourses and choosing to portray rural and exotic subject matter understood to be the purview of male artists, Hilda Rix enters into a process of strategically mimicking patr mimicry of these male ideal s disrupted claims of truthfulness or naturalness ascribed to male 55 Mimesis suggests a relationship of truthfulness between the model and copy, nature and image, or referent and Modern Drama, vol. 32. no. 1. (March 1989): 58 72. 56 I thank Brigitte Weltman

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41 presentation of ideal fe mininity and misogynist tropes. The second more radical, strategy Irigaray proposes as a means for women to acquire a nding to speak as a (masc uline) 57 Irigaray argues that for a woman to speak outside, 58 Through hysterical mimicry, women can break free from their role as a subjectivity, which has no means for expression or language in patriarchy. The h ysteric speaks from an outside forbidden position defined by men, which causes chao s and disruption, as these enunciatio ns have no point of reference to the male subject or phallus allowing a woman to 59 It is through hysteria that Irigaray argues women can become spe aking subjects Speaking (as) woman or parler femme is an experimental process through which women tax of discursive logic, based on the requirements of univocity and masculine sameness, in order to express the 60 I propose that in Morocco, outside the jurisdiction of western patriarchal constraints on her g ender, for the first time Rix engaged with 57 Irigaray, This Sex Which is Not One 76. 58 Ibid, 137. 59 The often associated with extremes. For example, eating disorders in women have been associated with the performance of hysteria. This Sex Which is Not One 136 and Robinson, Reading Art, Reading Irigaray 40. 60 Irigaray, This Sex Which is Not One 222.

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42 the experimental process of hysteria to assert her presence within Belle poque art and subject ivity as an independent artist. ng and cultural experiences that motivated them to seek out and portray the Oriental Other for western audiences. The dissertation will examine the diverse work the artists created leading up to and during their expeditions to North Africa before the First World War. I will argue that the tension and inconsistencies exhibited in Hilda Rix and Henry Belle poque fine art may be understood as evidence of their process of becoming and their negotiation of an artistic identity within the c ontext of an era that witnessed great social and cultural conflict and contradictory, a tendency that is revealing of the diverse strategies and challenges they face d in attempting to carve out a place for themselves and their art within a cultural space and discourse that was traditionally reserved for white men. Overview of Chapters a, tracing his struggle with racism and double consciousness in America and France, in addition to his early artistic success and increased visibility through the Paris Salon. This chapter will est in rural genre to biblical narratives, and later biblical Orientalism, which I suggest is a self conscious strategy on the modify his emulation and mimicry of white culture in order to appeal to a broader audience while still challengi ng the occlusion and misrepresentation of people of color in traditional fine art. As Tanner gained acceptance and recognition in France he was forced to devise new strategies to overcome his continued marginalization and classification artist in America.

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43 The next chapter will continue to explore Tan but shift to focus on which scholars have used to interpret his diverse and multif arious wor k, however, in Chapter 3, I argue that Tanner issues of race, but also reveals his sensitivity to the subjugation of women in patriarchy by portraying and uplifting women in his biblical imagery. During the first decad colony in taples. While he remained committed to religious subjects, the artist drew from the exceptional achievements and talents of the women in his life, to inspire biblical narratives that ns to religious spiritual life. I propose that in developing a personal and sophisticated vi sual idiom, which bridged academic realism and avant ambiguous and abstracted as a means to disrupt their fixed racial and gender identity; an effort the oppression of both women and people of color is imbricated by the structure s of white patriarchy Edwardian Australia. The chapter will provide the historical and social context and state of the pean art. Due to the male dominated nature of fine art in Australia, and limited opportunities for female artists, Rix rejected the identi her ambitions and talent to instead adopt the position of male artist mimicking his educatio n, travels, and subject matter.

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44 Ir igarayan analysis to identify how the aspiring artist mimicked her teachers and mentors, while also making alterations to their subjects to undermine misogynist stereotypes of women that were reinforced by patriarchal art. Like Tanner, Rix struggled with t male artists she emulated as an artist and her stylistic evolution from Melbourne, to London, Paris, and the colony at taples will be con sidered as a process and experimentation in calibrating her mimicry of patriarchal art. As a student in Paris and the art colony of taples in rural France, Rix would make contact with artists, including Henry Tanner, E. Phillips Fox, and Ethel Carrick tha t would indelibly shape her career. The work of these artists inspired her travel to Morocco, which would earn her international recognition and entrance into Belle poque fine art. ing with journey to Morocco in 1912. I reason Moroccan inspired imagery, is the result of how they situated thems elves in relation to existing Orient discour se. The artist s conflict in adopting and rejecting aspects of the traditions of Orientalism created a dialectic tension of Orientalism and Counter Orientalism. This dialectic and the paradoxes it produced are re vealing of the artists struggle to create a space for themselves within Belle poque where there was none before. Ultimately, both artists interpret and employ the traditions of Orientalism in unique ways to fulfill their individual per sonal and professio nal desires. to this genre evolved between 1897 and 1912 to a ccommodate his evolving strategies in

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45 representing race and gender. The artist shifted his focus from the port rayal and inclusion of women and racial difference to create biblical imagery that stressed the oneness of humanity through the abstraction and ambiguity of biblical figures to communicate the unifying power of spirituality. Tanner viewed his travel to Mo rocco as an escape that offered him the freedom to leave the academic realism he became known for behind, in addition to cultivating a personal visual idiom that defied western categorizations of himself and his work. In North Africa, Tanner freely experim ented with modernist aesth etics and abstraction to achieve a hybridity in his complicated by his adoption of a discourse that was used to establish and ascribe othernes s and subservience to the East. imagery she created during her return to Morocco in 1914 accompa nied by her older sister Elsie. Seeking acceptance into the pr ivileged discourse of fine art, Rix adopted Orientalism as a vehicle to create imagery using and manipulating a language that was valued by patriarchal art. The artist centers her practice in Morocco on the public space s and quotidian interactions of the m ajor marketplace, the Grand Soko. In Morocco, Rix continued her mimicry of patriarchal practices and stereotypes in a manner that problematically both reinforced and resisted the colonial ideology of Orientalism. At times the ar tist self consciously invert ed misogynist Oriental tropes of the harem and odalisque, and in others appears to complicity exploit the Oriental Other for her aesthetic gain. Finding it difficult to procure local models, the artist devised a strategy that involved the collaborative per formance of Oriental masquerade with her sister. Capturing these p erformances in sketches and lat e r finished paintings, Rix pushed her practice beyond the

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46 subjecti vity as a n artist. The dissertation will conclude with a brief discussion of the obs tacles and tragedy the artists faced and worked to overcome during the First World War, in addition to considering why their work was nearly absent from critical discussion or scholarship after the Great Depression. My examination of the lives and work of these very different artists aims to offer a new perspective that illustrates how their struggles with and strategies to overcome racial and gendered oppression overlapped and were imbricated, ultimately leading them to Morocco as a site of escape and artistic fulfillment. It is my hope that this study will supplement the existing scholarship on Henry Tanner and Hilda Rix to highlight their remarkable talent, adaptability, r esilience, and life long commitment to their craft.

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47 CHAPTER 2 FIGHT OR F In Paris, no one regards me curiously. I am simply M. Tanner, an American artist. Nobody knows or cares what was the complexion o f my forebears. I live and work there on terms of absolute social equality. Questions of race or color are not considered professional skill and social qualities are fairly and ce democracy. Henry Ossawa Tanner (Dec. 15, 1908) Throughout his long and successful career Henry Ossawa Tanner endeavored to be ealized portrayal of the social and cultural condition s of Belle poque France, when compared to the strict racial segregation and discrimination he experienced within American cultural institutions, it is easy to understand why the artist chose to enter the most prestigious ateliers and earn recognition from artistic organizations and exhi bitions in Europe that he enjoyed far more social freedom and the potential for professional growth and achievements as an expatriate. A deeper examination of his life and work expose s the real struggles Tanner endured in gaining access to and navigating w hite Euro raceless, cosmopolitan conditions in Par is notably intended for an American readership was just one among many methods he employed in challenging the racial classification that inhibited and conti nued to haunt his artistic efforts and identity in America. Whether or not Tanner actually believed that he lived and worked in an environment of racial democracy in France is unclear. ace. 1 What this quote does 1 Henry Ossawa Tanner papers, 1860s 1978, bulk 1890 1937. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution.

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48 demonstrate is that by 1908, as an established artist working across the Atlantic, Tanner acquired the sepa ration he needed from the binary racial categorizations that marginalized his artistic efforts in America, to feel empower ed enough to begin shaping his own narrative as an individual whose art and identit y transcended racial otherness. Following his death in 1937, Tanner fell into relative obscurity on both sides of the Atlantic. While this was partially the result of the ar idiosyncratic and increasingly experimental style, making his oeuvre challenging to assign to any of the dominant Belle poque mainstream art historical discourse for much of the twentieth century. When compared to the celebrated legacies of white expatriate artists, including James Abbott McNeil Whistler and John 2 Dewey M Philadelphia Museum of Fine Art and served as the editor of the accompanying catalog, alyzed Postbellum America, and only b egan to abate with the Civil Rights Movement and the emergence of Black Cultural Studies programs. 3 Today, Tanner is regarded as a foundational figure for African American arts, sharing this prestigious position with Ro bert Duncanson, Edward Bannister, Robert Douglas Jr. and Edmonia Lewis, all of whom are now canonical nineteenth century black American artists. 4 Concerning Tanner, this appellation is problematized when one recognizes that nearly all his 2 Dewy Mosby, Darrel Sewell, and Rae Alexander M inter. Henry Ossawa Tanner (Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1991), 15. 3 Mosby, Henry Ossawa Tanner 16. 4 Driskell, Two Centuries of Black American Art, 38 57 and Patton, African American Art 79 103.

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49 professional car eer was spent, and his successes were achieved, not in the country of his birth, but in France. Dewey Mosby United States he tended to be seen as an expatriate absorbed into French culture, and in France s working abroad have tended to 5 It is striking that e ven after finding success and residing in F rance for the majority of his adult life, Tanner still sought to be regarded as an American artist. In 1913, William E. Barton provided an introduction to an autobiography composed by the artist Barton first met Tanner and his wife Jessie on an omnib us in Paris several years before. The author recalled their discussion stating that Tanner told him: and he and his wife, who was with him on top of th at omnibus that night, moved freely in which society as they chose. It was not quite so in America, but he intended to win fame and return to 6 Although he was awarded many honors by American institutions, including indu ction as a full academ ician at the National Academy of Design in 1927, Tanner never triumphantly returned to create art in the United States. Far from this being a failure, his continued expatriatism o respond to and evolve accordingly to the challenges he faced in securing and maintaining his tenuous place within the world of white culture. In her account of the Tanner family history, the 5 Dewy Mosby, Henry Ossawa Tanner 15. 6 The Advance (March 20, 1913): 2012 2014 and Gerald Ackerman, American Orientalists (Paris: ACR Edition, 1994) 200.

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50 Minter, provides and explana decision t o remain in Europe: Henry Ossawa Tanner was a complex man who was unwilling to compromise his integrity or his humanism. In the same way that his family fought for civil rights in America, Henry waged a determined strugg le against the social and historical factors that sought to limit his artistic expression. His residency in Europe was not a retreat from political issues facing his people; he needed this distance to paint 7 In her defense of the artist, Alexander Minter incisively underscores the cornerstones that long artistic project: his family and faith. Race Relations and Artistic Founda tions in Pos tbellum America On June 21, 1859 in Pittsburgh seven children was born. The Tanners named their first son Henry, giving him the middle name Ossawa, a reference to Osawatomie, the abolitionist settleme nt in Kansas and site of the anti In bestowing their first son the appellation Ossawa, Benjamin and Sarah Tanner envisioned a future for Henry that included social activism to overcome prejudice and opp perseverance through often insurmountable challenges was fueled by his deep religious imparted through his family and the teachings of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), an organization that W.E.B. Du e 8 Benjamin Tanner, was an influential leader in the Church, serving as the editor of The Christian Record er a weekly journal of the AME. He later established the periodical, African Methodist 7 Rae Alexander 8 Contributions in Black Studies vol. 9 no. 4 (1992), 33.

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51 Episcopal Church Review serving as its editor until 1888 when he received the honor of being elected the eighteenth Bishop of the AME Church. 9 In 1868 the Tanner famil home in Philadelphia was a synergetic space of intellect, activism, and spirituality. The young social equality and moral obligation was not only guided by AME Church teachings, reliance and the belief that education and the act ive acquisition of knowledge were key s to empowerment. His family was close with Booker T. Washington, the activist who established the Tuskegee Ins titute in Alabama. The institute served as a vocational school that trained southern blacks with the necessary skills to acquire careers in teaching, nursing, agriculture, and artisanal trades. In gton held that education was a tool for self empowerm ent. leaders, including Reverend Tanner. The director of the Tuskegee Institute often cited the Tanner hievements as evidence of African American triumphs, which were accomp lished though the skills and knowledge obtained by purs u ing a higher education. 10 In Up from Slavery Washington made a p oint to recognize Henry Tanner: My acquaintance with Mr. Tanner rei nforced in my mind the truth which I am constantly trying to impress upon our students at Tuskegee and on our people throughout the country, as far as I can reach them with my voice that any man, regardless of color, will be recognized and rewarded just in proportion as he learns to do something well learns to do it better than some one else however humble the thing may be. 11 9 Dewey Mosby, Across Continents and Cultures: The Art and Life of Henry Ossawa Tanner (Kansas City, Mo: Nelson Atkins Museum of A rt, 1995), 10. 10 11 Booker T. Washington, Up from Slavery (Mineola, NY: Dover Publications Inc,. 1901 new edition 1995), 137.

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52 The Tanner family also shared values with the more progressive leaders of the New Negro Movement including W.E.B. Du Bois and William Monroe Trotter. 12 This urban centered movement philosophically opposed the Atlanta Compromise of 1895 and Booker T. s advocacy for African American s education to focus on industrial and vocational training as that resigned so uthern blacks to lower wage, working class positions, which were unnecessarily narrow and reinforced racial segregation and oppression. 13 Du Bois argued that the only way black Americans could achieve real social equality was by gaining unfettered access, n ot only to a vocational industrial education, but more importantly, to traditionally white liberal arts academic programs. 14 essays, The Negro Problem Du Bois voiced hi education of blacks. 15 As the first African American to graduate with a doctorate from Harvard University and study at the University of Berlin, Du Bois understood firsthand the power a liberal arts education had in allowing blacks to participate in white cultural discourse and gain civil rights for African Americans. Du Bois 12 13 The Atlanta Exposition Speech given by Booker T. Washington September 18, 1895, was pejoratively coined the Atlanta Compromise by Du Bois and other progressive activists in the north for its accommodationsim The speech outlined an unofficial agreement between southern white and black leade rs that would provide blacks with an education and due justice under the law, but that would submit blacks to white political rule and would limit their education vocational and technical fields excluding liberal arts and humanities. W E B . Booker T. The Lives of Black Folks 25 The Negro Problem edited by Booker T. Washington, (NY : Fireworks Press, 1899, new edition 2015 ) 8 22 14 The Lives of Black Folks 55 niversal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), which insisted that the divide between white and black Americans were too much to overcome. UNIA stressed the autonomy of black culture over integration and sought for the return of black Americans to Africa. 15 22.

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53 asserted that blacks, armed with the knowledge of a classical education, could rise up and bec guide the masses. 16 Du Bois ar ticulated this theory as follows : T he Negro race, like all races, is going to be saved by its exceptional men. The problem of education, then, among Negroes must first of all deal with the Talented Tenth; it is the problem of developing the Best of this race that they may guide the Mass awa y from the contamination and death of the Worst, in their own bottom upward? Never; it is, ever was and ever will be from the top downward that culture filters. The Talented Ten th rises and pulls all that are worth saving up 17 respected fine art institutions, such as PAFA and the Acadmie Julian. The Tanner family was the ideal image of the educated African America n 18 It was rare for black Americans to receive a college deg ree during the nineteenth century, yet both Benjamin and Sarah studied at Avery College in Pennsylvania. Benjamin pursued his education further at the Western Theological Seminary, providing him with the qualific ations to be ordained as minister and eventu ally a Bishop. 19 guidanc e, excelling in his studies to serve 16 Ibid., 11. 17 As an African American man, Du Bois is chiefly concerned with the plight and civil rights of black men. Although progressive and groundbreaking for the time, his perspective is no less patriarchal th an that of dominant 18 Ibid., 8 22. 19 Rae Alexander tenth of black Americans who were free managed t Prsence Africaine Nouvelle srie, no. 171 (1er semestr e 2005), 120 121. Judith Wilson, Modern Spirit 18.

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54 1877. His address at graduation stressed the necessity of education as a vehicle to overcome ignorance and vice emphasizing 20 Reverend Tanner wanted his son to follow in his footsteps and pursue the ministry. The elder Tanner as there were few African American artists during this period, and none working in Philadelphia to mentor Henry. 21 Despite these concerns, Benjamin Tanner was impressed by h steadfast determination to make a life for himself as a professional artist and ultimately supported him in this endeavor. Despite the notable accomplishments and high esteem the Tanner family enjoyed within the black community, Henry Tanner, of c ourse, was well acquainted with the stigma and prejudice that accompanied his race in Postbellum America. 22 In response to the injustices he witnessed and experienced first hand, he recognized that finding professional success within the American institutio ns that systematically suppressed the cultural achievements of people of color was nearly unattainable, a fact that ultimately led h im to pursue his career abroad. The justification for excluding non consensus a mong most white Americans during that period was that black Americans were 23 whites marveled at the fact that he was a black man who painted rather than a painter who 20 reproduced in Mosby, Across Continents and Cultures: The Art and Life of Henry Ossawa Tanner. 13. 21 American Visions (Feb. 1991): 14 20. 22 22. 23 20.

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55 happened to be black. Their attitude reflected a widespread assumption often expressed in 24 This view afforded white patriarchal society to reserve judgment, a ccess to, and the creation of struggles to find a teacher that would accept a black student, which he recounted in an autobiographical essay published in 1913, in the journal The Advance walking out with my father one fine, fair afternoon in Fairmount Park, Philadelphia, and there for 25 After boldly deciding upon his future, Tanner described made th e round of the studios. Alas! it was a disheartening process. The artists had other pupils, or they had no time for pupils, and the men whom I first visited had little time to bestow on a boy who knew nothing and had little money. Finally, Mr. I. L. Willia ms agreed to take me for $2 a 26 It is noteworthy that an earlier version of his autobiography published in the Work in 1909, elaborated further on the hardship Tanner faced in securing an instructor: During one of my school vacations, I ha d worked and saved up fifty dollars. This was to be devoted to study. But with whom should I study? No man or boy to question caused me, and with what trepidation and nervousne ss I made the round 24 Marcus Bruce, Henry Ossawa Tanner: A Spiritual Biography (NY: Crossroad Pub. Co., 2002), 54. 25 26 Ibid.

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56 knew nothing and had little money, but would he have me or would he keep me after he found out who I was? 27 The earlier memoir is significant as the 1913 ve rsion omits the overt reference to race and satirical allusion plagued the aspiring student based on the knowledge that a potential teacher would likely rescind their acceptance to instr uct I would like to consider the subsequent edited retelling of his artistic origins as a more deliberate and self conscious effort on race, a prejudice that plagued him through out the duration of his career. Double Consciousness and Racial Oppression Tanner eventually did find a teacher and made early attempts in the genres of marine and animal painting before e 1879 he was accepted, and registered in classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts (PAFA). 28 At PAFA, and later in the Acadmie Julian, Tanner participated in the repetitive and e mulative practices that structured the pedagogy of fine art academies. By choosing to pursue the highest level of artistic training, he hoped to learn the aesthetic codes, artistic practices, and adopt subjects that were established in white culture in an effort to access the power and prestige this knowledge symbolized. By adopting these codes, Tanner sought to be accepted into and make a place for himself within the normative discourse of American fine art. While at PAFA, Tanner took advantage of the oppo rtunity to study with established academicians, working 27 The Work (June 1909), 11663. 28 Henry Ossawa Tanner File (1885 1904) Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Archives. Philadelphia, PA.

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57 s 29 A was foundational in cultivating his skills and valuable in the mentorship he received from his instructors often not an easy one. Tanner did not indicate his race in his application. His acceptance was mer it based, determined by a drawing he submitted to the academy. According to the memoir of the illustrator Joseph Pennell, a contemporary student at the school, when it was revealed that Tanner was black, his acceptance into the institution was put to a stu dent vote. 30 The PAFA all white student body, illustrates the open and systemic racism characteristic of all such institutions and was indicative of the prejudices Tann er would continue to experience at PAFA. None of the academy in December of 1879. It can be argued that the white students did not object to Henry ollment, due to the prevailing belief that African Americans had no capacity for the cultural production of fine arts, and therefore the aspiring black artist posed no threat to their own ambitions. When Tanner proved himself to be a competent artist, earn ing the respect and unnoticed, though the room was hot. Little by li ttle, however, we were conscious of a change. I 29 Tanner enjoyed a close relationship with Hovenden, exhibiting with his former teacher the spring of 1894 in James S. Earle and Sons Galle ry in Philadelphia. While many scholars consider Thomas Eakins as having a more pronounced influence on Tanner, Naurice Frank Woods Jr. quotes W.S. Scarborough who identified Thomas thy with the broader and deeper the abolitionist cause and organization of the Underground Railroad, allowed him to sympathize and shape Ta 20. 30 Martin Berger, Sight Unseen: Whiteness and American Visual Culture (LA: University of California Press, 2005),100 101 and Mosby, Across Continents and Cultures, 16.

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58 can hardly explain, but he seemed to want things; we seemed in the way, and the feelings 31 The tense relationship with the institution and his classmates is highlighted by an event Tanner alluded to, bu t refrained from describing in detail in his autobiography: I was extremely timid, and to be made to feel that I was not wanted, although in a place where I had every right to be, even months afterward caused me sometimes weeks of pain. Every time any one of these disagreeable incidents came into my mind, my heart sank, and I was anew tortured by the thought of what I had endured, almost as much as by the incident itself. Well, it was to endure these things that helped me. It was he [Christopher High Sheare r] who first gave me the idea that I might have the qualities that, cultivated, would be of great help in the battle of my life. 32 In composing his memoirs many years after his days as a student at PAFA, Joseph ility to Henry Tanner likely due to the black is made apparent School 33 encounter that was described by Pennell illustrating the unabashedly racist attitudes and treatment Tanner was f orced to contend with at PAFA. One night we were walking down Broad Street, he with us, when a crowd of people of his color who were walking up the street, came a to assert himself and, to cut a long story short, one night his easel was carried out into the middle of Broad Street and, though not painfully crucified, he was firmly tied to it and left there. And this is my only experience of my colored brothers in a 31 Joseph Pennell, Th e Adventures of an Illustrator, Mostly in Following his Authors in America and Europe (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1925), 54. 32 as progress ive white patrons, who provided Tanner access to the inner workings of Euro American cultural institutions and its benefactors. During his turbulent time at PAFA, Tanner befriended the Philadelphia landscape painter Christopher High Shearer. Tanner credits Shearer in helping him through these difficult times and 1165. 33 Pennell, The Adventures of an Illustrator, 53 54.

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59 White school; but it was en ough. Curiously, there had never been a great Negro or Jew artist in the history of the world. 34 with his liminal position in American culture and double consciousness, which Du Bois argued, all blac spheres of white and black culture in late nineteenth century Amer ica. Instead o f pursuing a ca reer a nd finding recognition in a less esteemed but more hospitable avenue for his talent and artistic expression, despite the systemic racism of dominant white culture Tanner made efforts to access and work wit hin prestigious institutions such as PAFA. In doing so, h e carefully imitated and emulated the practices of well known and successful white American artists by obtaining an academic education at PAFA and purs u ing more advanced training and cultural opportunities in Europe. In waging the life was weighted with the burden of conflic ting desires. It is clear that Henry Tanner sought to be accepted by the Euro American fine ar t establishment, thus legitimizing his identity as an African American and demonstrating the talent and accomplishments possible of this race. Yet, Tanner simultaneously struggled with the desire to resist the racist and oppressive aspects of white culture The internal contradiction of desire and rejection of white cultural models the artist struggled with can be attributed to what WEB Du The Souls of Black Folk Du Bois described the 34 Ibid., 49 50.

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60 difficult process black A mericans endured in negotiating a multi dimensional Afro European identity: The history of the American Negro is the history of this strife this longing to attain self conscious manhood, to merge his double self into a better and truer self. In this mergin g he wishes neither of the older selves to be lost. He does not wish to Africanize America, for America has too much to teach the world and Africa. He wouldn't bleach his Negro blood in a flood of white Americanism, for he knows that Negro blood has a mess age for the world. He simply wishes to make it possible for a man to be both a Negro and an American without being cursed and spit upon by his fellows, without having the doors of opportun ity closed roughly in his face. 35 the ambivalence Homi Bhabha identifies in the process of colonial mimicry in which the indigenous population seeks to imitate the culture of their oppressor in order to access the authority it represents. Accordin gly, by entering into, and accessing the do minant system of white ness at PAFA Tanner acculturated the aesthetics, practices, and subjects of American fine art pedagogical insistence on imitation and emulation. the major institutions o f fine art, but not be r eabsorbed into transcend the limitations and otherness attributed to his race and be considered an artist in his own right In negotiating his identity and navigati ng the hostile landscape of white culture, long project was not without ambivalences and contradictions It was during his foundational experiences as an outsider within the normative white masculine identity of American art and culture that Tanner became increasingly cognizant of the need to leave the country he called home in order to acquire the distance and freedom necessary to challenge the system of exclusionary practices and misrepresentation from abroad. This is not to say that Tanner would never have achieved success as an artist in the United States. Rather, by 35 Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk 2 38.

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61 imitating the practices of his white peers in traveling and seeking further artistic instruction in Europe, he could potentially tap into the respect and authority these Old Wo rld cultural systems represented in America, acquiring the cultural collateral needed to legitimize a place for himself within American fine art. Henry Tanner went to great lengths and overcame many obstacles to actualize his departure from the systemic ra cism of late nineteenth century America and achieve the otherness he experienced in the United States by imitating the travels, education, and subject matter of hi s white mentors and colleagues. With the assistance of Bishop Hartzell and his wife, friends of the Tanner family, the pilgrimage to Europe. Despite rec eiving a favorable critical response, nothing from the purchased the entire show so that Henry had the sufficient funds necessary for his travel and study in Europe best for me, but I did not sell a p icture. I would have gladly parted with the whole collection for $25, however, I had saved a little money and my friends made up a sum bes ide, and on January 36 Academic Ambivalence and Black Genre Scenes On January 18, 1891, Tanner arrived in Liverpool, England. Although his plan was to visit London and Paris, and eventually settle in Rome, he was seduced by the City of L ight later 36 Tanne commission. It is uncertain who Mr. Eakins, who was known to financially assist worthy students when in need. Mosby, Across Continents and Cultures, 28.

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62 and I suffered much self denial, but I never suffered anything on account of my color. No bars were ever put in my way. From the beginning I was counted a hopeful student, and in time I was 37 In Paris, Tanner enrolled in classes at the Acadmie Julian, a favorite of American artists during the late nineteenth century and an alter native to the stringent entrance requirements of the official cole des Beaux contacts for l 38 the skills of draftsmanship and mastery of anatomical studies he acquired under Eakins and Hovenden at PAFA. It was during this time that Tanner worked under the supervi sion of the academicians Jean Paul Laurens and Jean Joseph Benjamin Constant. Known for his Orientalist imagery, Benjamin Constant would a nd portrayal of Orient al subjects; however, unforeseeabl e to the academician, his pupil would ultimately seek to challenge the very Orientalist models he created. Because living in Paris was costly, Tanner, like many other artists, escaped from the city and took up residence in the country during the summer In 1891 he worked on rural subjects and se ascapes in Pont Aven, Brittany, themes that were popular with both academic and avant garde painters The following year Tanner summered in Concarneau, which was populated with members of the Post Impressionist and e merging Symbolist movements, including Paul Gauguin. 39 37 38 John Milner, The Stu dio of Paris: The Capital of Art in the late Nineteenth Century (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988), 12 13. 39 Judy Le Paul and Charles Guy Le Paul. Gauguin and the Impressionists at Pont Aven (NY: Abbeville Press, 1987), fn 53 and Lesage, Peintres americains en Pas de Calais: la colonie d'Etaples

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63 this period by working closely with Sguin and Srusier in Paris and Brittany and that he found elements of the Symboli st Nabi principles appealing, he never officially align ed himself with the group. Instead, his work from this period illustrates that, like most Americans, he remained loyal to academism and more conventional approaches to the Breton landscape and figures. 40 Cognizant of his otherness to the tradition of Old World cultural systems, in both race and nationality, the artist realized that identifying himself as a vanguard moder nist would jeopardize his ability to find success or acceptance within the fine art establishment he desired to be legitimized by. Not unlike douard Manet, who declined the invitation to exhibit independently with the Impressionists, preferring instead to aspired for official recognition through the Salon and with its conservative white audience and patrons. Moreover, as the artist became indoctrinated by the ideals and practices of the Acadmie Julian and t he imitative and emulative structure of official art in France, he dedicated himself to des Artistes Franais). 41 Living off a strict budget, Tanner accounted that he survived on $365 a year his first two years in Europe. During his third year in Paris, the artist fell dangerously ill with typhoid fever, 42 Finding himself unsuccessful in his 40 Mosby, Across Continents and Cultures 34 37. 41 While studying in Paris, Tanner, like most students, became further immersed in the cycle of academic mimicry. The novelist and playwright, George Moor paint and draw alike, every one has that vile execution they call it execution la pte, la peinture au premier Moore quoted in Milner, The Studios of Paris 11. 42

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64 first bid t 43 During his recovery in Philadelphia, in August Tanner was invited and traveled to deliver a paper at the Congres s on Africa held in sition in Chicago The conference centered on the progress and cultural achievements made by African Americans since the Emancipation confronted the lie that black artists did not have the ability, intellect, or cultural appreciation to compete with white artists. 44 He based these statements on his own experiences and participation in the artistic community and ateliers of France as the se institutions forms of culture and success. Following his involve ment in the Congress on Africa C onference Tanner wrote about the new direction his work wou ld take using the third person: Since his ret urn from Europe he has painted mostly Negro subjects, he feels drawn to such subjects on account of the newness of the field and because of a desire to represent the serious, and pathetic side of life among them, and it is his thought that other things bei ng equal, he who has most sympathy with his subjects will obtain the best results. To his mind many of the artists who have represented Negro life have only seen the comic, the ludicrous side of it, and have lacked sympathy with and appreciation for the wa rm big heart that dwells within such a rough exterior. 45 Perhaps inspired by his participation in the Congress on Africa Conference, between 1893 and 1894 Tanner completed the two canvases, which he is most recognized for today. 46 The 43 44 Mosby, Across Continents and Cultures 31 and Frances Pohl, Framing America (NY: Thames and Hudson, 2008), 315. 45 Quote reproduced in Dewey Mosby, Across Continents and Cultures 31 and Frances P ohl, Framing America 316. 46 There has been debate concerning the location and dates of creation for The Banjo Lesson It was previously sketches of local figures. These s ketches have never been located; Minter found a photographic study for The Banjo Lesson was taken in 1893 while the artist recovered in the Carolina mountains. The canvas was likely crea ted in America after his sp eech at the Congress on Africa

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65 Banjo Lesson (Figure 2 1) and The Thankful Poor (Figure 2 2) are the most frequently cit ed and notably, are the only known canvases in which the artist chose to overtly portray African American life. Although The Banjo Lesson and The Thankful Poor a re the only black genre scenes Tanner created, problematically, these two works are what granted his inclusion into the art historical canon as a token represent ative of African American art. These genre paintings are the most frequently reproduced when re presenting the artist in compilations of black art history and western survey of art texts. 47 In her review of art historical s urvey texts, Kymberly Pinder stressed that in 1896 Tanner devoted himself, almost exclusively, to religious subject matter the nex t four decades of his life. Biblic al subjects dominate Tanner oeuvre and earned him the official recognition he sought, however his religious paintings continue to be presented as secondary to his African American genre scen es, which were created early o n, and for long career. 48 It is revealing of the ideological whiteness of art history that, despite not being narrowly signify hi s contribution to the history of art when black artists were first included in the survey of art texts beginning in the mid painter of biblical scenes, but it suggests that his racial identity was inext ricable from his choice Conference in Chicago that August. The painting may have been conceived of earlier, but created in Philadelphia during the late summer and early fall of 1893. The Banjo Lesson was first exhibited in Philadelphia October of 1893. version of the Banjo Lesson Sarah Burns contends that there were two canvases and that the one currently in the 47 Survey of Western Art Texts include: 10 th edition 1996, first time this popular survey text had three black History of Art 5 th Art History 1995. Hugh Honour and John Fleming, The Visual Arts: a History 4 th edition, 1995. Sam Hunter, American Art 1988. For Africa n American Art Surveys see fn 8, Chapter 1. 48 The Art Bulletin, vol. 81, no. 3 (Sept. 1999): 533 ision in African American Art Documentation vol. 13, no. 1 (Spring 1994): 3 8.

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66 he portrayed black themes. Furthermore, these genre scenes are often situated in dialog with his teacher, Thomas Eakins and the cont ext of American Realism, which implies can only be understood, or is indelibly indebted to the achievements of the white artist. 49 While there is no debate concerning the importance of these canvases to American Art and to Tanner personal ly as a turning point in his career, it is misleading that they serve in representing him as a canonical artist as they express a brief period in his work The Banjo Lesson and The Thankful Poor are unique, but also should not be consid ered anomalies. They exemplify continued interest in portraying rural genre scenes that were thematically connected through the familial and inter generational transmission of knowledge and skil ls. 50 For the purposes of this study, The Banjo Lesson and The Thankful Poor signify a conceptual turning point in Tann emulation enforced within the academic atelier. The process through which the canvas was composed, as w ell as the theme of black banjo playing, are evidence of e the choice in how to replicate or mimic, this theme reveals a tension and resistance to white cultural portrayals of black banjo playing t hat were pervasive in American fine art and popular culture 49 A similar treatment occurs when women artists, such as Mary Cassatt and Berthe Morisot, are included in the survey of art texts. They are situated in relation to and presented in a way that forces the reader to understand them through their more famous male counterparts. 50 Contemporaneous Bretonian genre scenes include The Big Pipe Lesson and The Young Sabot Maker, which also explore the theme of tr ans generational teaching.

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67 An example was his eager adoption of photography. 51 The a rtist learned to utilize the technology for compositional studies and as an aide mmoire from his mentor Thomas Eaki ns who in turn learned this p ractice from his teacher Jean L on Grme A encircling in his arms a young boy who holds a prop cardboard banjo (Figure 2 3). 52 The pho tograph illustrates photographic studies as a pragmatic step in the compositional process. 53 During his time in France, Tanner grew more self aware and purposeful in how and what he imitated. In taking on the subject matter of black life in the rural south, and particularly the theme of banjo playing, the artist took a critical step in his artistic evolution to renegotiate the terms of his mimicry. Describing the process of colonial mimicry Bhabh from mimesis and mimicry is a writing a mode of representation, that marginalizes the monumentality of history, quite simply mocks its power to be a model, that power which supposed 54 Accordingly Tanner did no t simply repeat what he was taught within white cultural institutions but consciously mimicked making alterations and correcti ons to subject s he felt were misrepresented in fine art and popular culture Tanner boldly ap propriated from imagery that reinfor ced white supremacy to mimic and und ermine the power of stereotypes revealing their fallacy His portrayal of black rural life in The Banjo Lesson and 51 After his studies at PAFA, Tanner briefly attempted to run a photographic studio in Atlanta. 52 from France in 1 53 Will South provides another hypothesis that identifies the photographic studies as source material for a commissioned assignment Tanner received from ng People 13. 54 Bhabha, The Location of Culture 125.

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68 The Thankful Poor seizes upon the ubiquitous white portrayals of African American life in popular cultur e Before The Banjo Lesson black Americans rarely, if ever, had the opportunity to represent their own culture especially in fine art. White Americans possessed the power to idealize their own history and culture, but also the authority to misrepresent o r erase the populations they deemed as Other to maintain white dominance. 55 The grotesque images of minstrel performance and racist portrayals of black entertainers singing, dancing, and playing music were popular with white audiences throughout the ninetee nth and early twentieth a shuffling, lazy, ill spoken and dishonest person. The African American woman did not fare so well either. She was seen as oversized, illiterate Aunt Jemima or m 56 These images were inspired by the blackface performances of white actors pioneered by Thomas Darmouth Rice who is attributed with the creation of the Jim Crow song and dance in 1828. 57 As Ralph Ellison asserted in the Invisible Man 58 In The Art of Exclusion one of the first studies that examined the representation of blacks during the nineteenth century, Albert Boime identified the strategies white artists employed to sensationalize and distort the image and culture of black Americans. Boime characterized the minstrel inspired images of white artists, such as William Sidney Mount, George Caleb 55 This extended beyond just genre and history painting to inclu de a latent ideology of whiteness in the Sight Unseen: Whiteness and American Visual Culture, 43 80 56 Alexander 57 Traveling minstrel shows owned by Al G. Field and George Mitchell established and reinforced the satirical image of blacks characterized with a large toothy grin and tattered clothing, conventionally equipped with a fiddle, Art of E xclusion 100. 58 Quoted in Alexander

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69 Bingham, George Fuller, Eastman Johnson, and even T 59 picking Jim Crow character with the apelike features and wide grin became the stereotypical ideal of white racism in the ninet 60 instruction serves to correct and speak back to the often ludicrous minstrel representations of his contemporaries. The Banjo Lesson is a thoughtfully cr afted coun ter image which mimics well known models Life at the South (Figure 2 4) commonly known as Old Kentucky Home among many others, rev ealing these as idealized images as fabric ations of 61 disclose n reflected and even upheld racial stereotypes. 62 An engravin g by Willy Miller, (Figure 2 5), portraying his black banjo player facing outward and on display, performing for the white 63 I n his analysis of The Banjo Lesson, Tanner scholar Naurice Frank Woods Jr. as a prototype for The Banjo Lesson 64 59 Boime, Art of Exclusion 100 101. 60 61 Nineteenth Century Art Worldwide vol. 15, no. 3 (Autumn 2016). 62 Mosby, Henry Ossawa Tanner 120. 63 Ibid. 64 20.

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70 have purposefully a 1878 Negro Boy Dancing (Figure 2 watercolor 65 The image of three black males of var ious ages partaking in the personal enjoyment of music and dance has been interpreted as Eakins own attempt to correct racist portrayals of this age. Why Tanner became more socially engaged after 1893 is unknown, but it is possible that after living and 66 may have also motivated his uncharacteristically outspoken Columbian Ex position. By embarking on the creation of The Banjo Lesson and The Thankful Poor Henry Tanner tested the effectiveness of mimicry to produced an image that ambivalently emulated the aesthetic practices while mocking the subject matter of white art to offe r a corrective image i racist misrepresentations of black culture. The Banjo Lesson (Figure 2 1) portrays an intimate moment between a humbly dressed paternal figure who affectionately instructs a young barefoot boy in pla ying a banjo. The figures, possibly, grandfather and grandson, are completely absorbed in the pedagogical task of transferring and acquiring knowledge. 67 The lesson takes place within a modest interior framed by simple white walls and unfinished wooden floo r. The room is sparse, suggesting the rural lower class status of the individuals, a s the space is decorated within only two small pictures on 65 Boime, Art of Exclusion 102. 66 Mosby, Henry Ossawa Tanner 120. 67 s hat on the floor as indicating his status as an itinerant teacher, not a member of the household. Mosby, Across Continents and Cultures 31.

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71 the back wall and a shelf hanging in visible furniture are two chairs, one of which t he elder teacher occupies, and a table situated against t he back wall partially draped with a white cloth. A variety of utilitarian objects appear throughout the room including a water pitcher and washing dish placed on the table, containers, and cooking i mplements on the fireplace hearth, situated in the right foreground of the composition. Spatial depth is suggested through the stacking and placement of objects throughout the composition and the modeling of the figures in raking blue and yellow light. Tan ner rendered the figures with volume, but the space they occupy is flattened by the decision to tip the floor and Impressionist and Post Impressionist work Tan ner would have been exposed to in France, but also reinforces the likelihood that the canvas was composed from a photographic study, as this flattened aesthetic is attributed to nineteenth century view cameras. 68 t of light further serve in emphasizing the familial intimacy and nurturing atmosphere on wet application of paint is illustrative of the au premier coup technique he would have encountered in the Acadmie Julian in Paris In Ta of figures and objects bathed in symbolic light, a characteristic that would become a hallmark of uality will remain a consistent and sign In T he Banjo Lesson the artist situated the pyramidal figural arrangement at the center of the canvas. The te acher and student are illuminated from the left by a cool white light orig inating from a window situated outside the picture frame. This blue white natural light is countered by 68

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72 the warm golden firelight emanating from an unseen fireplace to right. The Banjo Lesson was first exhibited in Philadelphia the fall of 1893 and was wel l received. The critic from the Daily Evening Telegraph commented on the unnecessary challenge Tanner created for himself by introducing two divergent light sources, yet ultimately commended the painter on his success in effectively negotiating the cool an d warm lights in the rendering of his figures. 69 The elder figure faces the audience, but is entirely focused on the lesson, unaware of the boy stands with his b ack to the warm glow of the fireplace, and is protectively encircled by his teacher who supports the neck of the banjo, which appears far too large for the young pupil to ck and base of the instrument reinforces the pedagogical investment and emotional connection between the figures. Albert Boime has identified the importance of the instrument and its presentation not 70 y, unaware of or in disregard of the white gaze, evokes s Negro Boy Dancing (Figure 2 6). In his s painting, Boime states 71 s model, Tanner expunged the performative a spect of black banjo playing for the enjoyment of a white audience 69 group, and cold daylight striking sharply against the other side. To paint his details in these two hostile lights, to make grappled manfully and with marked success, but which is, after all, evidently enough not the happiest way in which Daily Evening Telegraph October 7, 1893. Quoted in Mosby, Henry Ossawa Tanner, 119. 70 Boime, Art of Exclusion 101. 71 Ibid., 102.

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73 by altering the triangular figural grouping into an absorptive interaction between grandfather and immersion deflects the white gaze and e xpectation of performance. Instead of existing for the enjoyment of a white audience the figures turn inward stress ing their own mental activity. In composing The Banjo Lesson Tanner made great efforts to strategically appropriate both historical and cont emporary models enacting the strategy of mimicry as mockery. Through the proces s of artistic mimicry he sought to distinguish the difference and slippages between his portrayal of musical education and traditional white depictions of minstrel entertainment to expose the latter as inauthentic. The focus and absorbed concentration described as a part of this musical lesson underscores the intellectual capacity of African Americans and the value of education, which the Tanner family e spoused. ce of a pyramidal figural composition is significant because it not only drew from well known and established religious imagery of the piet and lamentation, but also compositions frequently adopted by white artists to position black figures in subservient roles. Albert Boime identified this compositional strategy, which consisted of a white male figure 72 African Americans are situated beneath the white paternal hero, often kneeling o r sitting, to form the lower Emancipation Group (Figure 2 7), as an example of this strategy. Abraham Lincoln is presented as a Christ like figure granting freedom to a subservie nt bare chested slave kneeling below. Similarly, many depictions of the abolitionist John Brown being led to his execution repeat this pictorial strategy, creating a white heroic apex and black subjugated base, which aesthetically reiterated hierarchal 72 Boime, Art of Exclusion 21.

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74 soc ial cultural roles within the pyramidal composition. Collectively, these images visually of white audiences. 73 The Negro Boy Dancing begins the project of teacher and pupil in The Banjo Lesson pushes this furthe r, by dramatically resisting any attempt versions of the Piet (Figur e 2 8) During his academic training in Philadelphia and Paris, the artist was likely exposed to or even copied these canonical works of art. These historic portrayals of the Piet nd base of a pyramidal composition, which supports the horizontal body of Christ. The form the Virgin supports his pupil, which I see as suggesting a spirit ual religious element to pedagogical practice. The representatives of two generations form a cohesive body that creates a stable pyramidal form. Both the mental and physical absorption of the figures not only deflects the exhibitionary expectations of the white gaze, but also corrects white artist s tactics to relegate black figures beneath those of white heroes. The Banjo Lesson offered a starkly different image of the black banjo playing figure that was intended to disrupt and undermine the clich d dominant white fantasy. In taking on a subject matter that was considered the exclusive property of white artists and offering a 73 Ibid., 19.

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75 corrective to the racist stereotype it perpetuated, Tanner made a conscious step t o move beyond an emulation of his mentors and the models offered by white art. Nau rice Frank Woods Jr., who dignified im 74 The Thankful Poor (Figure 2 2) functions as a pendant to The Banjo Lesson in its portrayal of a sensitive moment in rural black life that was fortified and ennobled through piety transcendental grandeur to the quotidian scene. The canvas is infused with a sense of qui et absorption and religiosity, which transforms an ordinary into a monumental moment. The horizontal composition represents an older man with his back to a window that serves as the single source of light. He is seated in a chair to the left of a square ta ble and bears a striking resemblance to the grandfatherly figure from The Banjo Lesson The elder gentleman solemnly bows his head, rests his elbows on the table, and raises his clasped hands in prayer over the meager meal he is thankful to share with the younger figure seated across the table. The theme of education and transmission of knowledge between generations once again features prominently in The Thankful Poor. While The Banjo Lesson emphasized the acquisition of cultural skills, The Thankful Poor s tresses the importance of a moral and spiritual education. praying gesture and pious seriousness, the young man rests his bowed head on his hand and closes his eyes s o as not to be distracted from his mindful prayer. The stark interior and empty 74

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76 white plates on the table suggests the meager means of the pair, yet they are gracious for the little they have to share with one another. The noble and absorptive image Tanner offers of African American spirituality and piety is unique for the late nineteenth century; however, as in The Banjo Lesson the artist purposefully manipulated the aesthetic codes of existing representations of the rural poor he encountered in France. T representations of Barbizon inspired peasant types, and his first hand experience with the rural poor in Brittany exposed him to both academic and avant garde interpretations of r ural peasant scenes from which to appropriate and re present within the context of African American life in the rural south. 75 superstition and fanaticism often attributed to African Ameri can religious practice. 76 The most 1740 S aying Grace (Figure 2 9), which the artist had the opportunity to view in the Muse du Louvr e and the contemporary work of American painter Elizabeth Nourse, Le Repas en Famille (Figure 2 10 ). 77 Tanner imbued his portrayal of moral education with a seriousness and authenticity that eschewed the anecdotal and sentimentality of late nineteenth century Salon genre scenes characteristic of Jules Breton and William French representations of the white rural poor, Tanner makes this image his own by illustrating AME Chur ch. As Boime observed: 75 Ibid., 14 20. 76 38. 77 Mosby, Henry Ossawa Tanner 20.

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77 centered universe his father, he may have pursued his early genre themes as a kind of regr ession to childhood fantasies in which an older, wise protective male nurtures the child. The paintings may very well contain autobiographical recollections of his own training and education, at the same time that they constitute a means to communicate his personal message as an alternative to that of standard genre imagery and popular illustration. 78 recognition of the subversive power m imicry had to offer in undermining th e false models and ideals of white culture. Additionally, The Banjo Lesson provided Tanner with another milestone in May of 1894. The canvas, entered as La Leon de Musique the first of his many paintings that were acc epted and exhibited at the Paris Salon. Although the Salon was a significant achievement that made him visible in the eyes of the fine art world for the first not be underestimated. The vernissage (or varnishing day for artists) was a great social event in Paris for the smart crowd. For European and American artists, it was an imm ense marketplace 79 Tanner returned to Europe in 1894 and officially claimed residency in France. The following year, he again had work accepted into the Salon exhibiting two Breton inspired genre scenes and a pastel of the New Jersey coast in moonlight. 80 Having more than one work selected for the 1895 exhibition was no doubt encouraging for the artist, yet none of it garnered significant attention. It was only after Tanner shifted his focus from genre to more obvious 78 79 Mosby, Across Continents and Cultures 33. 80 May 1895 Salon: Two oil on canvas, Brittany In terior, The Young Sabot Maker and a pastel of the New Jersey coast in moonlight.

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78 religi ous subject matter that the Salon jury and French critics began to take serious notice of the 81 Expatriatism and Abandonment of the New Negro? In 1896, members of the Salon jury rewarded Henry Tanner for one of his earliest religious paintings, granting an honorable mention. 82 The artist e me a courage and a power for 83 ance and abandonment of African American subject matter. Leaders from the black community, including Alain Locke, hoped that Tanner would return to the States to serve as a pioneer of the New Negro Movement. A Tanner family friend, W.S. Scarborough, summar ized the attitude of his contemporaries: hoped that a portrayer of Negro life by a Negro artist had arisen indeed. They hoped, too, that the treatment of race subjects by him would serve to counterbalance so much that has made the race only the laughingstock of subjects for those artists who see nothing in it but the most extravagantly absurd and grotesque. But this was not to be. 84 81 Mathews, Henry Ossawa Tanner: American Artist 71. 82 making it easily overshadowed on the tightly packed walls of the exhibition space. As a coincidence, or perhaps due Leon Grme, took notice of the painting likely because of the subject m atter coveted space in the exhibition that offered Tanner a new degree of visibility. Mathews notes that Grme did not know Tanner personally but was attracted by the subject matter, Mathews, Henry Ossawa Tanner: American Artist 73 74. 83 84 Southern Workman XXXI, 1902, 665 666. Quote appears in Woo African American Art 98.

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79 After 1896 Tanner would never again portray African American culture, instead shifting his focus, almost exclusively, to religious and Oriental subjects for the rest of his life. 85 Some in more aligned with the idea genre scenes to the African American community during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries should not be underestimated, as they were viewed as artistic achievements, which po werfully communicated the philosophy and aspirations of the New Negro Movement. 86 Although Tanner philosophically agreed with many of W. the New elite educational opportunities, his decision to remain in Europe caused many in this movement to become disheartened by his perceived lack of engagement with their cause. Alain Locke was among the prominent voices who nes but was dismissive of his later biblica l paintings for being too Eu ropean and racially unspecific: Tanner, who as one of the outstanding pupils of Thomas Eakins, should have become the path breaker in art documenting Negro life (who, indeed, started h is career with intimate folk studies like The Banjo Lesson ) remained in Europe, except for occasional family and sales visits, to absorb brilliantly but futilely, a lapsing French style. 87 85 Tanner does paint portraits of his mother and father in 1897 and Booker T. Washington in 1917, but these are the extent to which he engages with representation of black American life after 1896. The p ortrait Tanner completed of this The French Government his repository of material for mimicry after from seeing the canvas in person. 86 The Banjo Lesson was first exhibited in Phila delphia the fall of 1893 and later at the Paris Salon of 1894. It was Henry Ossawa Tanner 299. Judith Wilson desi through a declaration of African American self esteem that anticipated the twin emphases on racial pride and vernacular culture which would come to characterize the work of numbers of Black artists only in the 20 th century, beginning with the so 87 Alain Lock, The Negro in Art 9.

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80 More recently, scholar and curator Adrienne Childs has defended Henr y Tanner against the accusation of the artist by abandoning his cultural advocacy of New Negro art perpetuated the not ion of a bio logical or innate aesthetic shared by all black artists. This perception encouraged a narrow and monolithic interpretation of African American culture, which Tanner took considerable efforts to chal lenge through his art. In reviewing his personal letters a Alexander expatriate; in fact he eschewed the word. He believed he did not have the luxury of being an expatriate, a privilege, as Jame s Baldwin would suggest years later, accorded only to white 88 While expatriatism embellished the status and careers of white American artists, many of whom Tanner admired, his personal writings indicate that he never considered himself anything but American, shunning this classification. In an effort to maintain his American roots, in 1895 Tanner joined the American Art Club in Paris (AAAP) following the lead of his colleagues, Hermon MacNeil and Hermann Dudley Murphy. 89 It was through the America n Art Club that Henry was introduced to Rodman Wanamaker, the president of the group and heir to a fortune amassed by his father, John Wanamaker, the owner of a chain of high end department stores in New York and Philadelphia. 90 Rodman Wanamaker took up res idence in France to acquire fine art for display in 88 Alexander 89 Kathleen Adler, Erica Hirshler, and Barbara Weinberg, Americans in Paris 1860 1900 (London: National Gallery, 2006), 30 33. 90 Mosby, Henry Ossawa Tanner 90.

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81 associate, Robert Ogden, would serve a prominent role in assisting Tanner financially, sponsoring several trips to the Holy Land in an effort to advance his artistic career and cultural resources. 1895 and 1897. Some believe the decision was economically motivated as religious sub jects were preferred by his white benefactors, while others cite a spiritual enlightenment and renewed religious devotion as the inspiration for a focus on biblic al themes. Despite living abstemiously, Tanner often faced financial struggles. Much of his co rrespondence with Harrison Morris, the then director of PAFA, reveals the economic hardships the artist endured even after his success and notoriety at the Paris Salon. 91 Ultimately, it was the support of white American benefactors, including Harrison Morri s, Robert Ogden, Atherton and Ingeborg Curtis, and John and Rodman Wanamaker that sustained Tanner for the duration of his artistic career. One can speculate that ideally, he would have preferred to have the financial backing of the African American commun ity, but the level of support Tanner needed to achieve his lofty aspirations would never materialize from black p atrons during his own lifetime. In order to fund his return and continued study in France, in 1894 Tanner made various efforts to sell his genr e scenes to investors the pictures I could lay by hands on furnished a few hundred dollars, and with this and 92 There are theories as to what Tann er 91 Henry Ossawa Tanner File (1885 1904) PAFA Archive. 92 Henry Ossawa Tanner papers, 1860s 1978, bulk 1890 1937. AAA Smiths onian Institute.

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82 scene, The Bagpipe Lesson and present it to the Pennsylvania Academ y for display in their 93 The plan was abandoned when the board was only able to raise three hundred of the thousand dollars requested fulfilled promise made him aware that he could not rely solely on the monetary support of the black community. 94 At this same moment in his career, the artist was encouraged by patrons, including Wanamaker and Ogden, to focus on subjects they perceived as s alable and more agreeable with white of color. In this form, they could also 95 Religious subjects had a venerable and well established history in the fine arts and were proven to appeal to a potential white moneyed clientele. In an attempt to combine his evangelism 93 the Academy of Fine Arts in this city. The movement did not make much progress; resulting in the collection of only your influence for at least the 25¢ subscriptions [for a good reproduction of the picture]. I have bestowed time, thought Henry Ossawa Tanner 113. 94 The plan did not succeed but Ogden, who was a trustee of Hampton University, bought the picture himself and donated it to the university in 1905 where it remains today. Mosby, Across Continents and Cultures 33. Tanner will again be disappointed by patronage from the black communi ty when between 1924 1929 he was forced to sue the Mother Bethel AME Church in Philadelphia for the payment of a memorial he created. In a letter dated May 30, 1927, to his lawyer Raymond Pace Alexander me it is too bad that the only time in my life when I have had to appeal to the law to aid me in collecting the amount agreed to for one of my works should be for an order from my own people. What would I have amounted to if I had had to depe nd upon my own people who make a great fuss about me I do not know or I do know but I do not fail to Tanner (1859 1937), University of Penns ylva nia Archives, Philadelphia, PA. 95 advance African Americans pictorially ended, therefore, by the fact that from a purely financial standpoi nt, the French did not want such paintings, the Black masses in the United States could not sustain him, and mixing race

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83 of religious images for The Life of Our Savior Jesus Christ making these illustrations available to American consumers. 96 By joi the four volume series, normally a cost of $30 to $50, for just $1 down and $3 dollars a month. 97 as the president of partner Robert Ogden, saw potential in the artist and invested in him beginning in the mid 1890s. Egypt and encouraged him to continue working on biblical subjects. After the success John Wanamaker younger Wanamaker sought to duplicate this effort with Tanner. 98 In a letter from Robert Ogden to Tanner dated July 12, 1900, his benefactor suggested that his continued focus on biblical subjects could garner the same s I like the idea of the production of a collection that may be suggested by subjects that you may find in Palestine. It strikes me that, if the number of pictures is sufficiently large to command general interest, it would be a very great success. The Tissot pictures when first exhibited in this country, were welcomed by crowds o f intelligent people. Of course, they were greatly advertised in advance, but some of the wisdom of this world may be applied to the development of your idea. 99 While it was economically practical for Tanner to turn to religious imagery, this move cannot be prominent 96 Century ReVisioning: Critical Methods of Seeing Christianity in the History of Art ed. James Romaine and Linda S tratford, 277 294 (Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2013). 97 Southern Workman vol. 29, no. 1 (Jan 1900), 57. 98 99 Henry Ossawa Tanner File (1885 1904) PAFA Archive.

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84 position in the AME Church, it seems quite natural that Tanner would eventually depict religious spiritual, and 100 According to W.S. Scarborough, family friend and the vice president of Wilberforce school, Henry Tanner gave up genre painting for religious scenes simply because of the impact channels and thus made his art 101 From this standpoint, Henry Tanner continued to pursue the connection between didactic and spiritual imagery initiated in The Thankful Poor thus carrying on the legacy of Bishop Tanner by visualizing the virtues of a spiritual and m oral education in his canvases. Later in his career, during an interview, the America n journalist Jessie Fauset, repeated an anecdote attributed to Tanner. I n pursuing an artistic career instead of joining the ministry, as his father had hoped, Henry offered Benjamin Tanner a consolation 102 When pressed by Fauset about this anecdote, the art 103 100 American Art vol. 27, no. 1 (Spring 2013): 94. 101 666. 102 The Crisi s vol. 27, April 1924, 258. 103

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85 While the turn to religious subject matter seems quite natural for the son of a prominent Bishop, the timing of this career defining shift may have bee n motivated by a spiritual and moral 104 faith was tested and that he felt he had not responded appropriately good and how unfaithful I have been, how far I have lived from what it was my privilege t o live. How very sorry I am. How by the help of the Lord I am going to try to live much more faithfully 105 In this heartfelt confession, it also becomes clear that Tanner vowed to amend his have made up my mind to serve Him 106 Woods suggests that as part of his repentance Tanner chose to concentrate specifically on shift to primari ly bible derived imagery and his decision to redirect his life to atone for his 107 concentration on biblical subjects after 1896 was the result of a crisis and renewal of spirit and that his penance was to serve God by dedicating himself to creating a visual ministry. 108 104 Letter from Henry Tanner to his parents, December 1896 from private collection. Woods notes that the owners of 103. 105 106 Ibid. 107 Ibid., 98. 108 Ibid.,102.

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86 public professional life, the artist was fa r more restrained, leaving his expressions and feelings often guarded and rehearsed. In his published autobiography, Tanner offered his own explanation erican subjects, which was home and pa int things I was not drawn to, I did not like the idea of quitting the helpful influences 109 decision in an equally sensible manner: The artists under whom Tanner studied at J he heard discussed there Benjamin Constant, Laurens, Grme, Meissonier, Chavannes, Bastien Lepage had all won their laurels as painters of history or allegory. If Tanner wished to try his hand at more elevated subje cts than Breton fishermen or landscapes, it was logical for him, with his background, to turn to the Bible. 110 Far from abandoning or being absorbed by dominant art, I believe Tanner made the choice to shift his attention to and specialize as a biblical pai nter because it offered him a degree with white patrons during th e nineteenth century, was not only economically pragmatic and spiritually satisfying, but necessary in enabling him to address a wider and more diverse audience. It can be argued that Tanner shared a racial identity with the rural African Americans he port rayed in The Banjo Lesson and The Thankful Poor but that they were not necessarily experience of being black in America s as a highly educated, urban, middle class individual was very different f rom the rural blacks he portrays in these canvases 109 110 Mathews, Henry Ossawa Tanner: Amer ican Artist 72.

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87 racist representation, but had the unintended affect of alienating the very audience Tanner sought to engage in d ialogue. This became clear the fall of 1895, when the artist exhibited three p aintings and earned a medal at t he Cotton States Exhibition held in Atlanta. The show included celebrated American artists, such as Thomas Eakins, Mary Cassatt, and Winslow Homer Y et, the event was bitter sweet for Tanner, as his work was segregated from the white artists in the Negro Building. Mosby suggests that certainly recognized that his Bagpipe Lesson 111 Keeping in mind his recent success at the Salon with I would argue that Tan subjects was likely motivated by more than just economic or spiritual concerns alone. Tan ner was no doubt cognizant that if he wanted to advance his professional career and status in the world of white culture, he not only had to remain in France, the capital of fine art, but pursue subject matter that was held in higher esteem than genre or landscape. Instead of being resigned to a segregation of his work, Tanner took on biblical themes that would further facilitate h is immersion within the institutions and visual expressions of white privilege. Mimicry and Mockery in the Latin Quarter Within a Euro American artistic context during the nineteenth century, Christian imagery was considered the exclusive property of white 111 The exclusion of his work was especially hurtful because it came at the urging of his patron Robert Ogden. In a place in Quote reproduced in Mosby, Across C ontinents and Cultures 38.

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88 biblical subjects provided him the cover to create imagery that challenged conventional religious art, effacing the visibility he desired previously, in order to become unseen and unthreatening. His mimicry of traditional and accepted subject matter camouflaged the artist, allowing him to make subtle alternations and revisions to the normative white portrayals of biblical narratives. ctive potential in accordance with s belief that: 112 choice of religious subject matter as camouflage, in Albert Boime painting African American subjects, but his work allowed for a different expression of his 113 After the suc cess of the artist embarked on a new canvas in which he would exercise mimicry as a form of visual biblical exegesis. The summer and fall of 1896, Tanner chose not to travel to Brittany, but remained in Paris working tirelessly o n the painting that would secure his place in the fine art world. The Resurrection of Lazarus (Figure 2 11) granted him critical and professional success while attracting the attention and accolades of audiences on both sides of the Atlantic. Before the pa inting was celebrated at the 1897 Salon, it elicited the praise of his colleagues and teacher Benjami n Constant. In September of 1896, the Latin Quarter, the official publication of the AAAP, singled 12). It is clear from the state of the canvas documented in the photograph that the artist continued to labor 112 Of the Gaze reproduced in Bhabha, Location of Culture 121. 113

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89 throughout the autumn of 1896 making numerous revisions to the composition and size of the finished canvas within t he rented studio he shared on the boulevard Saint Jacques. 114 Tanner wrote to his parents that Benjamin 115 The artist went on to write: It only shows how much more he likes my picture this year he never expresses He did not say all of this to me privately there were 3 or 4 persons in the room 2 o 116 In addition to the desired approval of his mentor at the Acadmie Julian, Rodman Wanamaker, the president of AAAP, was granted a viewing of the canvas before it was visit the Holy Land to experience the birthplace of the religious sentiment the artist captured in his canvas. Wanam aker and Robert Ogden granted Tanner the opportunity to experience the February through late April of 1897. 117 Although the painting was completed before the artist l eft for Holy Land in early 1897, ospel. In response to this assessment the artist replie d: 114 Tanner made note of the struggles he encountered in attemptin made a shipwreck trying to follow the advice of a friend who counselled [sic] that a canvas that gave as much very likely it flattere d my vanity and I bought a canvas size by ten feet. After working upon it quite a long time, I came to the conclusion that I could only Story of an 11773. 115 116 Ibid., 96 97. 117

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90 was a fortunate accident. In the Orient the light, both interior and exterior, the mannerisms of the people, the costumes and habits of living all are vastly different from anything that could be imagined in the West. One should go there every two or three years, at least, to keep in touch with the true Oriental spirit. 118 European and American artists made seeking an exotic inspiration that was provided by the colonial viewin experience the Holy Land imitated the journey James Tissot made a decade earlier to study and record the people, customs, and landscape for his illu strations of the New Testa ment. After six weeks in Palestine, Tanner began his return to Paris through Venice, where he received notification that the Resurrection of Lazarus was awarded a medal and would be d upon the reception of not to be lost. I was off next morning to 119 Well before Tanner began work on his interpretation s resurrection from the dead, the biblical narrative enjoyed a rich history of representation in the visual arts and was portrayed by many of g ospel of John appears in a v ariety of media beginning with e arly Christian frescoes preserved in catacombs, to medieval illuminated texts such as the Rossano Gospels and Hunterian Psalter, as well as a Byza ntine style mosaic found in the Canonical artists s uch as Giotto, 118 7 (December 15, 1908), 72. 119

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91 Duccio, Tintoretto, Caravaggio, William Blake, and Benjamin West, as well as numerous named and unnamed artists le poque contemporaries fellow academicians, includ ing celebrated portrayals by Lon Bonnat (1857, Figure 2 13) the Danish painter Carl Heinrich Bloch (1870), J ames Tissot (ca. 1886, Figure 2 14), and his mentor, Benjamin Bible So ciety (1895 1899, Figure 2 15). Tanner may have appropriated elements from a number of these histori c a nd contemporary representations; however, critics in both Europe and America saw stylistic century interpretation of this biblical subject. publication The Art Journal referred to the canvas as Magazine of Art s 120 The Baroque Dutch artist made several images of the resurrection of Lazarus, including 16), as well as an oil on c anvas ca. 1630 (Figure 2 canvas was held in Paris in a private collection. It is unknown if Tanner ever saw this work in person, but he wrote of the many hours he spent in the Louvre and certainly would have had 121 In an interview later in his 120 Art Journal Magazine of Art 21 (Augu st 1897): 187. 121 Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit, edited by Anna O. Marley, 69 78 (LA: University of California Press, 2012), 74.

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92 were conceptualized both as 122 It is noteworthy that both Rembrandt and he narrative diverged from the g ospel of John by situating the miracle within the darkness of a burial cham ber. This setting deviates from the text, which describes the disciple emerging from the tomb into the daylight and to the astonishment of his mourners. 123 Resurrection of Lazarus the Belle poqu is distinguished from his predecessors in its ethnographic realism and emotional authenticity. In taking on this biblical narra tive, Tanner mimicked an established subject of Euro Am erican Christian culture and played with the artistic codes and compositional strategies of a respected artist, like Rembrandt, to offer a biblical image that represented the d followers. The artist captured the most dramatic moment of the gospel, when Jesus commands e takes place in the dimly lit interior of a cavernous burial chamber. Mary and Martha, sisters of Lazarus, kneel on either side of Christ. Mary, positioned to the left of Jesus, covers her face clutching her bowed head in her hands. Her face is not visible, but her gesture and long expressive hair reveals that she is overcome with emotion. On the other side of Christ, Martha, although more composed than her sister, gazes up 122 The Crisis vol. 77, no. 1 (January 1970): 9. 123 It was a cave, and a stone lay upon it. Jesus said, Take ye away the stone. Martha, the sister of him that was dead, saith unto him, Lord, by this time he stinketh: for he hath b een dead four days. Jesus saith unto her, Said I not unto thee, that, if thou wouldest believe, thou shouldest see the glory of God? Then they took away the stone from the place where the dead was laid. And Jesus lift up his eyes, and said, Father, I thank thee that thou hast heard me. And I knew that thou hearest me always: but because of the people which stand by I said it, that they may believe that thou hast sent me. And when he thus had spoken, he cried with a loud voice, Lazarus, come forth. And he th at was dead come forth, bound hand and foot with graveclothes: and his face was bound about with a napkin. Jesus said unto them, Loose him, and let him go. Then many of the Jews which came to Mary, and had seen the things which Jesus did, believed in him. Gospel of John 11:1 45

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93 at Jesus in awe. A crowd of onlookers fills the cave and it s entrance, many obscured in darkness. who appears strikingly looks down up on a miraculously reanimated nnatural glow of his own grave. Despite the obvious theatricality of bringing a dead man back to life, Tanner offered an emotionally and psychologically intense scene that eschewed the sensationalism or formulaic staging of previous portrayals to entice all viewers, regardless of national, racial, gender, or even religious background. In the left of the canvas, the crowd of onlookers is compressed within the tomb displaying an array of expressions that demonstrate astonishment, awe, and even fear in the power they have just witnessed. Instead of adhering to the traditional portrayal of Christ, with arms raised powerfully in a commanding gesture, Tanner chose to des cribe Jesus as absorbed and meditative. This decision represents a continuation of the absorptive project Tanner began in The Banjo Lesson and The Thankful Poor enticing all viewers to participate in and experience the miracle themselves, resisting theatr icality for focused emot ional intensity. Compositionally, the grave from which Lazarus emerges is positioned in the foreground, pushed towards the pictorial surface which separates the viewer from the scene inside the canvas This strategy effective ly for ces the viewer to enter the space in a similar manner to the ca. 1600 1604 Deposition of Christ ( Figure 2 18 ) and 1850 Burial at Ornans ( Figure 2 19 ). In his analysis of The Resurrection of Lazarus Mar c Simpson identifies the compositional revisions that were made to the final canvas by comparing it to the photograph of the work in progress published in the September 1896 issue of the Latin Quarter (Figure 2 12)

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94 Simpson argues that these changes were m the miracle depicted befo re them. He observes that a figure on our side of the grave one hand raised in wonder, back towards us. Eliminating this Rckenfigur c surrogate for the viewer; by giving us access without this intermediary, Tanner compels us to 124 Likewise, Woods underscores how the artist mim icked space of a crowded tomb to heighten the emo tional intensity and directness, effectively replacing 125 By mimicking the interior setting Rembrandt used in all three of his Lazarus inspired darkness of the burial chamber as a mode of c amouflage or protective covering. The palette of The Resurrection of Lazarus is dark and warm, composed almost entirely in shades of black, brown, and golden yellows with strategically placed white highlights. The deployment of light is similar to rendering of light for psychological and spiritual effect. The dark ambiguousness interior provided Tanner the opportunity to render complex light effects that s imultaneously concealed and revealed, reinforcing the ambivalent effects of mimicry. manipulation of light for symbolic effect, in often mysterious and dark environments, remained a signatur e of the 124 71. 125

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95 faith in Christ. In the New Testament, Lazarus is described as one of the most ardent and faithful followers of Jesus. For this he is rewarded by God, bathed in spiritual light and resurrected from the dead. The dark light, but it also provides an degree of anonymity and protective covering intended to of traditional Christian imagery, which traditionally featu red an all white cast of characters. The artist populated the dark tomb with a heterogeneous and anti race, and gender, many of which are obscured and ambiguous w ithin the shadows of the tightly packed interior Most notable is an Orientalized black man wearing a white turban. Art historian Kristin Schwain has noted the visual importance of this astonished looking figure within the composition. Within the dark canv as, the black figure is the only witness that wears white robes, 126 When the canvas was exhibited at the Salon, audiences did not view the inclusion of non white Europeans i n the composition as subversive; instead lauded as an racially diverse, non western figures was interpreted by critics as participating in an artistic trend made popular by the exotic ethnographic inter est of nineteenth century descriptions of the 126 Signs of Grace: Religion and American Art in the Gilded Age (Ithaca, NY: C ornell University Press, 2008), 50.

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96 Orient, made famous by Grme and his teacher Benjamin Constant. Tanner would have been exposed to, and possibly became interested in, representing ethnographic types during his studies with Eakins and Benjamin Constant. Benjamin Constant in particular was known for his investment in rendering exotic, Oriental figures with archaeological and ethnographic detail. He was recognized by being made the co president of the Socit des Peintres Orientalistes Franais a t its incep tion in 1893. s work Rembrandt often depicted his b iblical figures in exotic garb, exemplified in the Oriental clothing and accoutrements which appear in Ju das Repentant and Returning the Pieces of Silver Joseph Accused by Potiphar's Wife and the ca. 1635 (Figure 2 20) among likely an effort to li nk the modern inhabitants of the Holy Land w ith those from the b iblical past. Li fe of Christ 127 Tanner negotiated historic and contemporary Orientalized representations of religious narratives to capitalize on his white wes him with an alibi to insert racial diversity his religious paintings. Tanner could have depicted the resurrection of Lazarus in any nu mber of ways by mimicking well known and established models from the past. Therefore, it is significant that he chose to Orientalize the scene as it 127 Additionally, Marcus Bruce identifies the anti Henry Ossawa Tanner: A Spiritual Biography (NY: The Crossroad Publishing Comp any, Signs of Grace 52.

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97 allowed him to portray non white individuals by appropriating a visual discourse that was sanctioned and va lued by wh ite culture. Tanner carefully calculated his approach in mimicking and mocking biblical art to appeal to white viewers by using a historically tested subject to camouflage his challenge to the authority and exclusive ownership white worshipers he ld over Christianity and its interpretation in fine arts. The Resurrection of Lazarus was a biblical narrative most Christians during the late this gospel episode American tradition of biblical art by replacing the all white followers of Christ with a diverse cast of figures regarded as Others in Belle poque society. He playfully repeated and revised elements of traditional biblical art to offer a corrective image that represented the heterogeneous reality of those that identified as Christians throughout the world. By representing the diversity of Christian believers, Tanner created an image that promoted social equality and humanity through the power of faith and spirituality. The effect of this representation validate d and ga ve visibility to Other Christians, undermining the authority white culture held over the practice, interpretation, and portrayal of these beliefs, a mission that was intimately connected to the the belief that all people were created equal in the eyes of God and that the struggles of the Jews could be seen as parallel to the struggles of black s 128 Critics praised however, there were those in the black community who 128 Pohl, Framing America 318.

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98 assessment of the canvas was that the real the lowly people of Palestine for his types, and he has succeeded admirab ly in his masculine subjects in showing us the Jew as he must have lived and looked nearly twenty 129 deviation from the textual source as a form of visual exegesis. This personal inter pretation of the g ospel of John, informed by AME Church teachings, allowed Tanner, as the first spectator and creator of the image, to identify with struggles and oppression of the holy figures he portrayed. Within this context it is tempting to interpret his easel on Broad Street, as an event that moved him to relate with the condemned and marginalized, but also the spiritually resilient biblical figures he chose to represent. Naurice Frank Woods Jr. convincingly argues that Henry Tanner possessed a special affinity for the figure of Lazarus. Although the artist never specifically returned to the subject of sisters Mary and Martha. Additionally, he painted several versions of Christ in the House of Lazarus most significantly a canvas that was exhibited in the 1914 Salon (Figure 2 21), which included a self portrait of the artist. A s American Art Collection, presents Tanner embodying the figure of Lazarus (Figure 2 22). Woods points out that portrait, and 129 oppression see Kristin Sc teachings in which she expands apon the history and affinities with the Jewish people began soon after they arrived in the New World and learned the tenets of Christianity from nstruct an African 55.

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99 this version of Lazar us appears to have been a favorite of his, as he exhibited it regularly, 130 By adopting the figure of Lazarus as an avatar, Tanner further used religious camouflage to insert his own presence and subjectivity into the work ma king visible his practice and beliefs as a black Christian for a white audience. The Reverend Bishop wrote extensively of the mutual oppression that blacks and biblical figures endured and made attempts to bring to light the contribution non whites made in the foundation of Judaism and Christianity. Benjamin Tanner denounced the racist hypocrisy of white Christians who used biblical texts to normalize segregation and oppressio n of other races so remorseless that [they ha ve] not hesitated to lay unholy 131 Leaders in the AME Church were vocal in criticizing white of inclusion and racial harmony, an d once white scholars read the Bible through a nonracist lens 132 the existence and role that racial and gendered Others played i n Christianity, but were also images that ultimately sought to overcome racial distinctions in favor of equality and spiritual unity. During a trip to Paris, Booker T. Washington de winning canvas had the power to erase diffe 130 131 their paternity than the Negro. The genealogical table of the Negro, written in his own flesh remains. Ages of scouring have not sufficed to erase it. Written by the finger of God, it is more enduring than the stones of Sinai. It remains, and will remain the badge of 1869, 22. See 59. 132

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100 the categories of s Luxembourg, Washington stated: Few people ever stopped, I found, when looking at his pictures, to inquire whether Mr. Tanner was a Negro painter, a French painter, a German painter. They simply knew that he was able to produce something which the world wanted a great painting and the matter of his color did not enter their minds. 133 Whi white audience to overcome obsessive racial classification, contemporary reviews and to American press took notice. While never losing touch with his African American heritage and cultural upbringing, the artist desired to be judged on the artistic merit and talent demonstrated by his work, not by associations or assumptions made according to his complexion. However, race over his artistic and aesthetic achievements. Among many others, the review of The Resurrection of Lazarus 134 achieving artistic and professional success. Lester addressed his American readers in an admonishing tone, underscorin g the societal prejudices that forced the artist to flee the land of his birth in order to pursue an artistic career in Fran ce. Lester described Tanner as: 133 Washington, Up fr om Slavery 1901, 202. 134 41, no. 2120 (August 7, 1897): 780. Boston Herald, A rt Amateur 37, no 3 (Sept 1897): 63.

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101 A distinguished American artist, less known and honored in his own country than in the centers of Eu were known nationality nor race in art, and Mr. Tanner has found in Paris none of the obstacles that might have barred his way to success in his own land. 135 rebuke of American racial divisions, he could not help but fall into the trap of defining the artist in accordance to his appea rance. Reiterating the belief that the in his personality there is little to no trace nor suggestion of African ancestry. His clear, grey eyes are of the Aryan type; his complexion is a clear white, bronzed by the sun in an active outdoor life. His features are of the classical Roman mold, h is carriage, attire and manner that of the modern Parisian. His thick, dark, curly hair, brushed carelessly back from a fair, broad brow, suggests the southern Latin races rather than types of tropical origin. 136 l understanding and relationship to his artistic and cultural movements of the twentieth century. Much of this debate centers on an excerpt of a letter Tanner wr ote to the American art critic Eunice Tietjens in response to the draft of an article featuring the artist, which she planned to publish in the International Studio The author made a point to praise his artistic accomplishments in spite of the many obstac 137 Tanner thanked Tietjens for her high estimation of his work, but challenged 135 136 137 Henry Ossawa Tanner papers, 1860s 1978, bulk 1890 1937. AAA Smithsonian Institute.

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102 strict White/Black, or White/Other racial binary, classifying th ose with any trace of African ancestry as black and therefore Other to normat ive white culture and society. In his reply Tanner wrote: Now am I a Negro? Does not the of English blood in my veins, which when it Saxon men and which has done in the past effective and distinguished work in the U.S. does this no t count for anything? Does the or blood counts and counts to my advantage though it has caused me at times a life of great humiliation and sorrow. [But] that it is the source of all my talents (if I have any) I do not believe, any more than I believe it all comes from my English ancestors. 138 mocks the very no fabricated and enforced by American racial categorizations and the creation of a color line, a topic Du Bois will la African heritage, gnized himself for what he was, an American who could trace his complex genealogy from multiple ethnicities and who was raised in a family that identified with and made 139 y and camouflaged mockery earned him recognition and at least a temporary acceptance into elite Belle poque fine art in Europe, the American press continued to 138 Henry Ossawa manuscript, 1914, Henry Ossawa Tanner Papers, AAA, Smithsonian Institution. 139 Alexander

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103 p that pushed beyond the mi micry and mockery of pre existing white ideals t o create an entirely new image of universality and unity through the concept of hybridity.

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104 Figure 2 1. Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Banjo Lesson 1893, oil on canvas, 124.5 x 90.2 cm., Hampton University Museum, Hampton, VA. Figure 2 2. Henry Ossawa Tan ner, The Thankful Poor 189 4, oil on canvas, 90 x 111.75 cm. private collection.

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105 Figure 2 3. Attributed to Henry Ossawa Tanner, Photographic study for The Banjo Lesson Figure 2 4. Eastman Johnson, Negro Life in the South (Old Kentucky Home), 1859, oil on canvas, 91.45 x 115 cm., New York Historical Society, NY.

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106 Figure 2 5 Willy Miller, wood engraving after lost painting by Thomas Hovenden n.d Figure 2 6 Thomas Eakins, Negro Boy Dancing 1878, watercolor, 45.7 x 55.8 cm. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY.

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107 Figure 2 7 Thomas Ball, Emancipation Group or 1876, bronze, Lincoln Park, Washington DC. Figure 2 8 Michelangelo, Piet, 1498 e.

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108 Figure 2 9 Jean Baptiste Simon Chardin, Saying Grace (le bndicit) ca.1740, oil on canvas, 49 x 38 cm. Muse du Louvre, Paris. Figure 2 10 Elizabeth Nourse, Le Repas en Famille 1891, oil on canvas, location unknown.

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109 Figure 2 11 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Resurrection of Lazarus 1897, oil on canvas, 94 x 121 cm., Figure 2 12 Photograph of The Resurrection of Lazarus in progress. Published in The Latin Quarter ( September/August 1896 )

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110 Figure 2 13 Lo n Joseph Florentin Bonnat, The Resurrection of Lazarus 1857, oil on canvas, 112 x 145 cm Muse Bonnat, Bayonne, France. Figure 2 14 The Life of Christ, 1886 1894, watercolor and graphite on paper, 25.4 x 18.4 cm. Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY.

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111 Figure 2 15 Jean Joseph Benjamin 1899, illustration for the Holy Bible Amsterdam I llustrated Bible Society, 1900. Figure 2 16 Rembrandt van Rijn, The Raising of L azarus 1642, etching and dry point, 15.2 x 11.4 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

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112 Figure 2 17 Rembrandt van Rijn, The Raising of Lazarus ca 1630 oil on panel, 99.5 x 81.3 cm. Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA. Figure 2 18 Caravaggio, Dep osition of Christ 1603, oil on canvas, 300 x 203 cm., Pinacoteca, Musei Vaticani, Rome.

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113 Figure 2 19. Gustave Courbet, Burial at Ornans 1 849 1850, oil on canvas, 315 x 668 cm. Figure 2 20 Rembrandt van Rijn, Feast ca 1635, oil on canvas, 167.6 x 209.2 cm. National Gallery of Art, London.

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114 Figure 2 21 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Christ at the Home of Lazarus (lost painting with self portrait) n d. Figure 2 22 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Study (Self Portrait) fo r Christ at the Home of Lazarus graphite on paper, n.d. Smithsonian American Art Collection, Washington DC.

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115 CHAPTER 3 CREATING A HOME FOR WOMEN, REALISM, AND RELIGION As indicative of the previous chapter, the majority of scholarship on Henry Ossawa Ta upbringing in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and experiences with the racism of Postbellum Am erica no doubt shaped his work and artistic mission. While T anner was certainly aware that his African ancestry positioned him as an outsider to dominant nineteenth century culture, he rejected this position, and responded by creating imagery that revealed the fiction of Belle poque racial classifications and the deception e/Other racial binary, illustrating his sop histicated understanding of race as a complex social construction, not a biologically fixed category. In Chapter 2, I propose f double mimicry of tradi tional fine a 1 creating representations that corrected the occlusion of those marginalized in Belle poque society and culture, including hi diversity will evolve during the turn of the century to accommodate for his concern and interest in addressing the subjugation of women as Others within patriarchy. His new focus reflected a transformation in his artistic mission, which continued his efforts to correct the misrepresentation of those marginalized in Belle poque society by underscoring the important and necessary role women played in shaping and supporting culture. This concern inspired Tanner to create imagery 1 Buick, Child of the Fire: Mary Edmonia 32 33.

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116 that focused on the lives of biblical women, and to ultimately adopt a moderni st aesthetic strategy that embraced formal abstraction as a means to portray religious figures as both un fixed and purposefully ambi guous in t heir race and gender. This chapter will examine the biblical imagery Tannery created after 1897, which I consider indicates a great interest in biblical women also offered him the opportunity to create a visual response to the Catholic Revival occurring in Europe and Ameri ca during the second h alf of the nineteenth century. While recognizing that the oppression women suffered was different from that of racial subjug ation, his own experiences with racism likely made him more aware and sympathetic to the marginalization that many endured within white project transformed to reflect milestones in his own life and his evolving relationship with women. These gendered relationships provided him a greater understanding of how the other ness of race and gender are different but also imbricated. Foundations in Gender Consciousness: The Exceptional Tanner Women of women was awakened by a trip to England in September of 1901 to meet Reverend Benjamin Methodism. During their time across the channel, the artist visited the home of Catherine Impey. Impey was a well known segregationist, and humanitarian worker, and the founder of the Anti Caste a publication designed to argue against discrimination

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117 2 s meeting with Impey certainly would have included conver sation on contemporary issues of race and gender discrimination, potentially illuminating accomplishments the women in his family achieved, in spite of their ma rginalization as women and African Americans, I believe Tanner readily recognized the inequalities and otherness women faced well before his encounter with the renowned feminist in 1901. was laid within the provided a model for Henry to aspire to; however, higher education and academic pursuits were not limited to the men in the Tanner household. While busy raising her seven children, she managed to organize the Mite Missionary Society for the AME Church, the first of its kind for African American women. Today the Mite Society continues their work internationally engagement to address economic, social, and justice issues. Additionally, Sarah and her daughters were active mem bers in the Pierian Club, an organization that advocated for and supported tellectual pursuits, meeting regularly to study and discuss art, literature, and science. 3 In 1895, Sarah published two articles in the AME Church Review ithin the socio political life of early nineteenth century New England. This public ation was followed by her study of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow later that year. 4 2 Mosby, Across Continents and Cultures 50 and Mosby, Henry Ossawa Tanner 152. 3 Alexander Across Continents and Cultures 41. 4 S AME Church Review 11 (Jan. 1895): 383 AME Church Review 12 (Oct. 1895): 283 290.

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118 ster Halle graduated from the W pass the medical boards and practice in Alabama. Halle relocated to Alabama at the invitation of Booker T. Washington who offered her a position as resident physician at the Tuskegee In stitute. In a letter from Benjamin for her success in Alabama demonstrating an awareness of the multilayered oppression his daughter faced. The reverend wrote: all anxious about the Doctor. Not that we have any misgivings as to her ability to pass any reasonable and just examination. But we 5 While working as a physician at the Tuskegee Institute, Halle es addition to these remarkable accomplishments Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and later became the first black woman to graduate from 6 and racial norms of their time, serving as a foundational example for his belief in the intellect ual and cultural capabilities of both women and individuals of color exposure to the encouragement of female intellectual activity and the milestones achieved by the women close to him, no doubt shaped his progressive stance t and professional pursuits. Through his own quest for an artistic education, Tanner was likely familiar with the difficulties women artists faced within the patriarchal world of fi ne art. For example, when he arrived in Paris, women were still denied entrance into the cole des Beaux Arts, only acquiring 5 Alexander 6 Ibid., 31.

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119 acceptance after 1897. Being among the most progressive art institutions, both PAFA and th e Acadmie Julian classes continued to be segregated by sex. 7 At PAFA, women were granted access to the statue beginning in 1844. I n 1860, women could enroll in coursework, but were limited to anatomy and antique drawing classes, which formally provided them with instruction in the copying of classical plaster casts. Later i n 1868, female students acquired access to life drawing classes first with the female and then the male model in 1874 As Tanner would have experienced during his enrollment at PAFA, these life drawing classes were segregated by sex and male models were Despite being denied entrance to the cole des Beaux Arts, a spiring wom en could find instruction in private ateliers, including the Acadmie Julian, which was one of the only ateliers in Paris that offered women the opportunity to study the nude figure. These studios, however, were particularly costly for female students, oft en charging double or more the rate of their male obstacles the women in his own family overcame to achieve academic and professional accomplishments, he must have been conscious of the ways women artists were systematically excluded from professional artistic opportunities, not on account of their race, but because of the gender expectations of women in Belle poque society. 7 Tamar Garb, Sisters of the Bru Century Paris (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994), 81 and Milner, The Studios of Paris, 13 14.

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120 Creating a Home in France When the artist set sail for Europe in 1891, he could not have imagined that he would never return to live permanently in the country of his birth. Early accounts of his time in France offer insight into phy he confessed: I felt what it was to be a stranger in a strange land. True, by good friends I was warmed and fed, both of which I needed, and not until having made the rounds of the student hotels and seeing me comfortably settled did they leave me; ye t I was depressingly lonesome. How strange it was to have the power of understanding and being understood suddenly withdraw! The strangeness of it, perhaps, is what made me feel so isolated. 8 To assuage this loneness, the artist threw himself into his work His grueling work habits were so well known that his American patron, Robert Ogden heavily upon your sympathies, and such work is always both mentally and physically exhausting. 9 In December of 1897, Henry Tanner met a future patron who would have an enormous effect on his future. Atherton Curtis, like Rodman Wa namaker, was an American living comfortably in France as an expatriate, from inherited wealth. 10 While their meeting in 1897 was not immediately impactful, Atherton and his wife Louise, and later, supporters for the remainder of his life. 11 life and career, which provided him with a sense of belonging and completeness that he lacked 8 9 Letter from Robert Ogden to Henry Tanner d ated July 12, 1900. Reproduced in Mathews, Henry Ossawa Tanner: American Artist, 100. 10 purchasing a small canvas of the pyramids. Atherton w as an avid Egyptologist, but eventually extended his interests into contemporary art. Letter from Atherton Curtis to Jesse Tanner dated November 22, 1937, AAA Tanner Papers. 11 Atherton Curtis Married Louise Burleigh in New York City in 1894. Louise died y oung in 1910 after which Atherton remarried a Dutch woman Ingeborg Flinch. Atherton and Ingeborg both died in 1943 two days apart from one another.

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121 close relationship with the Curtises, Louise, Atherton, and Ingeborg all make appearances in his life: His interest in Henry Tanner initially was as an artist who was worth encouraging. This interest developed into a lifelong friendship that sustain ed Tanner, materially and spiritually, over many rough moments and made it possible for him to enjoy a the Hartzells, Robert Ogden, and Rodman Wannamaker whose benefactions help him overcome obstacles, but none who could compare with Atherton Curtis for the extent of his help or the affection that went with it. 12 was a chance encounter the following year, which developed into a relationship that was arguably the most significant of all his partnerships in shaping and sustaining his art and life. During the summer of 1898, the artist and several colleagues traveled to Barbizon to escape the heat and congest ion of Paris and paint landscapes in the Fontainebleau Forest. It was in the idyllic Barbizon environs that Tanner first met his future wife. 13 Jessie Macauley Olssen was a young white woman of Swedish American decent. She was raised in San Francisco, where her father worked as an electrician for the shipping industry. The summer of 1898, Jessie, who was an accomplished opera singer, and her sister Elna, who played the piano, traveled to Germany to required him to return to San Francisco, Jessie and Elna travel ed to Paris and then down to Barbizon where they met Henry 12 A therton was not interested in the family business and relocated to Europe. He assisted several artists in Europe, but only became close with Tanner and his family. Mathews, Henry Ossawa Tanner: American Artist 90 91. 13 Most scholars agree that Henry and Jessie first met in the Barbizon, however Dewey Mosby suggested that the two met when Henry was painting landscapes in Cernay la Ville, northwest of the Fontainbleau Forest. Mosby, Continents and Cultures 46.

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122 Tanner and his colleagues. 14 1909, Tanner reminisced about his first meeting with Jessie: As you will see by the very important printing at head of letter I have left Paris for a few days during the extreme heat. I shall very likely return at the latest Friday, for several reasons. I spent a summer here before 1900 where I met Roy, Avy and lot of the French painters and incidentally Jessie and Elna Olssen were among the party. I doubt not the memories of those days had something to do with my coming back again. Of course I was not so foolish as to expect to live those days over again. 15 Despite having very different personalities, their first encounter must have been agreeable attractive, and talented. Her warmth and spontaneity were in co 16 17 and before long, the two were inseparable. Their courtship was interrupted in October when Rodman Wanamaker sugg ested the to the Holy Land was longer than his first, spanning from October 1898 to March of 1899. It seems the artist threw himself into his studies, perh However, a telegram Jessie sent to the artist in late February addressed to his boarding house in Jerusalem, makes it clear they had not forgotten about one another. Her three word message, eliminat ed any inhibitions the shy, modest artist may have had in proposing marriage. On December 14, 1899, Henry and Jessie were married at Saint Files in the 14 Mathews, Henry Ossawa Tanner: American Art ist 94. 15 Barbizon during the summer, which would have been 1898. Letter reproduced in Mathews, Henry Ossawa Tanner: American Artist 94. M osby includes Joseph Maurice Avy and Roy H. Brown among the painters Tanner was with at Cernay la Ville the summer of 1898. Mosby, Across Continents and Cultures 46. 16 Mathews, Henry Ossawa Tanner: American Artist 94. 17 Ibid.

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123 Bloomsbury, London. Through the many travels, triumphs, and struggles they shared, the couple year relationship was to be a singularly happy one. 18 sociable, but also accessible to journalists and aspiring artists. It was after their marriage that Helen Cole, jou rnalist for Brush and Pencil provided her American audience with one of the first artistic profiles on Tanner. 19 ility The journalist reported: He is one of the hardest workers in the quarter, and has been very little known in student circles for the reason that with the roystering caf habitus he has little sympathy. Now that he is so much sought, he is coming out of h is shell a little more, and this year, for the first time, he will hold receptions twice a month in his studio in the Boulevard Saint Jacques. 20 standing and social ties with fellow artists. Her position as social mediator was just one of the many roles she played in his life. Beginning in 1898, Jessie would serve as the model for many 21 Art historian Alan Braddock, has suggested that by 18 Ibid. 19 Many of th e interviews Tanner granted during his career were with female journalists. It is tempting to speculate effort to speak with female journalists when possible. I thank Brigitte Weltman Aron for bringing this to my attention. Brush and Pencil vol. 6, no. 3 (June 1900), 103 104. E.F. Outlook also app eared in April of that year. 20 104. 21 Readily identifiable images of Jessie include: The Artist Wife ca. 1898, La Saint Marie ca 1898, Music 1902 1903, 1910, Martha in Christ at the Home of Lazarus, (1912, lost canvas), Christ and His Mother Studying the Scriptures 1910, a nd Christ Learning to Read 1910 1914.

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124 especially rich structure of autobiographical relations in the picture that once again underscores 22 During and beliefs. Beginning in 1900, Jessie and Henry spent their summers in the small vi llage of Trpied near the coastal in northern France. Trpied b ecame a refuge for the Tanners providing them respite fro m the urban chaos of Paris. In 1904, Henry purchased property in the village and collaborated with other expatriates to establish the Socit Artistique de Picardie. 23 Several other American artists t ook up residency near the Tanners, forming what became known as the American colony of Trpied. Included among these was Myron Barlow, who lived next to the Tanner property and became especially close with Henry and Jessie. The artist previously met Barlow a native of Detroit Michigan, when he arrived in France and joined 24 Both of the Tanner homes in Trpied, Les Charmes and later Edgewood, echoed the comforts and intellectual synergy Henry enjoyed in his childhood home on Diamond Street in Philadelphia. The Trpied Tanner residence was a space for friends, relatives, patrons, journalists, and colleagues to converge. With Jessie by his side, the artist was less withdrawn and generously opened his home to host social gatherings. Jean Claude Lesage, an art historian who has wri tten extensively on the artist colony and those working in taples during the Belle 22 23 The official Plage, Pas de Calais. In their catalog Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit Henry Ossawa Tanner, both date the purchase of this prope rty to the spring of 1904. Alternatively, Lesage dates the acquisition of Les Charmes to 1908 after Tanner returned from studying in Algeria. See Jean Henry Ossawa Tanner, Modern Spirit edited by Anna O. Marley, 87 97 (LA: University of California Press, 2012), 89 and Lesage, Jean Claude. Peintres amricains en Pas de Calais: la colonie d'Etaples 24 Other American residents included: Paul Dessar, Roy Brown, Chauncey Ryder, Chester Hayes, Charles Bountwood

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125 ent model, Louise Grandidier, joyfully recalled the summers when Henry would bike into taples from Trpied on a tricycle towing Jessie in a little wagon. 25 in Trpied. Between 1910 and 1914 the Tanners made Les Charmes their permanent residence, while Henry maintained a studio apartment in Paris. 26 It was in Trpied, surrounded by his family, friends, and colleagues that the artist finally found his home away from home. H e had achieved a sense of belonging and was at the heigh t of his professional career. domestic contentment by underscoring the importance of home in his religious narrative s. Biblical domestic scenes were a way for the artist to explore and promote both the real and spiritual satisfaction a collaboration of religion, family, and home could provide. This sentiment was echoed by F.J. Campbell, the editor for the Fine Arts Jour nal who reported his conversation with the artist noting domestic side of biblical personages. He said that the Bible was full of suggested domesticity. He is not painting actual incident s, as they have a thousand times been represented, but that quiet 27 Evidence in how Tanner merged his personal, spiritual, and ar tistic ideals is found in the canvases Christ at the Home of Mar tha and Mary (1905), T he Visitation (Mary Visiting Elizabeth) (ca. 1909), The Holy Family (ca. 1909 1910) and two versions of Christ at the Home 25 Jean 26 From 1904 to 1912, Tanner rented a Parisian studio at 70 bis rue Notre Dame des Cha mps and from 1912 to 1934 at 51 boulevard Saint Jacques until 1934. Marley, Modern Spirit 27 Fine Arts Journal 25 (March 1911): 163 166.

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126 of Lazarus o portray these specific g ospel narratives had the effect of highlighting wome equally important role and contributions to a spiritual life. Additionally, in composing these domestically set biblical nar ratives, Tanner incorporated portraits of his wife, Jes sie, his friends and benefactors, Ingeborg and Atherton Curtis, as well as a self portrait, revealing the can autobiographical nature. The undated version of Christ at the Home of Lazarus (Figure 3 1), cast Jessie in the role ha. The figure sweeps into the composition from the left, attentively balancing a small platter with food, which she e agerly presents to Christ who is seated at a table with Mary and Lazarus, portrayed by Ingeborg and Atherton. The location of the origina l canvas is unknown and survives only through a black and white photograph. From this photograph, it is clear that Tanner replicated the portraits of Ingeborg and Atherton for the Portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Atherton Curtis with Still Life (Figure 3 2), or al ternatively cut the original canvas to reimagine the painting of his friend and ben efactor as a secular portrait. In both versions of the Christ at the Home of Lazarus wife and benefactors identified the home as a site of s piritual sanctuary, a space that cultivated a sense of belonging and friendship. As such, these canvases are intimate reflections, which to the artist, his bibl ical imagery was intended to communicate more than just private domestic contentment. Tanner chose his subject matter carefully, depicting Martha and Mary numerous

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127 ospel narrative, 28 While the g ospel informs race, intellectual and spiritual pursuits sness symbolizes the importance of service and home in fostering and nurturing a s piritual life. However, in the g ospel text, Jesus corrected Martha for acceptance of believers, regardless of previous sins, gender, race, class, or nationality was viewed as radically egalitarian in rejecting first century Mediterran ean patriarchal order, as well as the social norms of Judaism. Breaking with traditional rabbinic teaching practices, Christ welcomed Mary, and other women throughout the g ospels, to sit with him and learn, an activity reserved only for men in Judaism at t his time. The rejection of gendered social norms is evident and her uncomfortability traditional domestic role of service. Ultimately, Christ chastises Martha stating that Mary has made a wise choice, illustrating the inclusivity of his message and th e desire for equality in pursuing knowl edge and a spiritual education. 28 As Jesus and his disciples were on their w ay, he came to a village where a woman named Martha opened her home to him. She had a sister called Mary, who sat at the Lord's feet listening to what he said. But Martha was distracted by all the preparations that had to be made. She came to him and asked "Lord, don't you care that my sister has left me to do the work by myself? Tell her to help me!" "Martha, Martha," the Lord answered, "you are worried and upset about many things, but only one thing is needed. Mary has chosen what is better, and it will not be taken away from her. Luke, 10: 38 42

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128 While the g ospel elevated intellectual pursuits over industriousness, rather than disparage Martha, Tanner chose to emph asize her active role as well. In the 1912 version of Christ at the Home of Lazarus Tanner replaced Atherton Curtis with his self portrait embodying the figure of Lazarus (Figure 3 3). Sadly, the location of this canvas is also unknown, but Clara MacChes ney, an artist and journalist for the International Studio offered a description of the painting when it was first exh ibited at the 1912 Paris Salon: H.O. Tanner continues to be the poet picture, yellow and brown ton Christ at supper in the home of Lazarus. Martha standing and in the act of serving at the left. Christ is seated at the center, a self portrait of the artist is represented at the right with Mary at his side. In the figure of Martha Tanner tries to raise her from the position of a worried housekeeper to that of a human and very sympathetic woman, lovingly serving her master. He considers this one of his most successful figures. 29 portray her, not simply as a foil to her sister Mary, or as the ideal patriarchal model of woman as as mor e than a servant, but an active participant in the composition, granting her humanity and substance equal to that of her siblings seated with Christ. She serves them not out of spite, but as ity and sincerity is made investment in these biblical sisters recognized both the industriousness and intellectual equality of women. By underscoring the multidime the complexity in talent, intelligence, service, and faith of the women in his life. 29 International Studio vol. 54 (Nov. 1914), 27.

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129 Marian Imagery and Mothers of the Bible In 1897, after traveling to Egypt and Palestine the spring of that year, Tanner stopped in seeking out noteworthy Christian art and architecture in Italy, he could not have escaped the Mariology. Marian devotion became particularly important after the mid century papal doctrine of Ineffabilis D eu s, which officially immac ulate nature. This declaration and the imager y it inspired became a feature of the Catholic Revi val adopted first by Catholics in Italy and then quickly implemented around the world. 30 The purpose of the Ineffabilis Deus immaculate concepti proclamation that Mary was born withou t the original sin that burdened humans is a belief that continues to be rejected by P rotestant denominations. The authoritarian nature of the papal decree increased tension s between Catholics and Protestan differing beliefs on the nature of Mary and her role in Christian worship In addition to what many Protestant worshipers viewed as provocative actions by Pius IX, his successor, Leo XIII continued to emphasize Mariology becoming the first c hurch leader t o officially emb as Mediatrix stressing her divine nature and role as a mediator to Christ. 30 The Catholic Revival in Italy was inspired in part as a reaction to the secularization advocated by the Risorgime nto, the unification of Italian states during the mid nineteenth century. In 1846 at the beginning of his tenure, Pope Pius IX was viewed as a modern reformer, but two years later he was forced to flee Rome during a political uprising in the city. When ret urning to the Vatican in 1850, he rescinded his more liberal approach and secular privileges. In 1851, Leopold repealed his liberal statute and signed a concordat with the Vatican that retracted these recently acquired secular freedoms and subjugated all non Catholics in Tuscany. The agreement and its enforcement were fiercely draconian, including imprisonment if found privately reading the Bible. See Nancy Thompso Century Nineteenth Century Art Worldwide Vol. 12, No. 1 (Spring 2013): 1 16.

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130 known portrayals of the annunciation in the San Marco Dominican convent comple x. In a letter to Ingeborg Curtis, he described how the work inspired his own interpretation of the g ospel of Annunciation in Florence. I refused to buy even a photograph of it preferring to live with t 31 Fra Angelico painted several versions of the Annunciation including two in the convent dormitory at San Marco in Florence (Figure 3 4), which would inspire many subsequent versions of this theme. While the encounter between Mary an d the Angel Gabriel appears several times thr oughout the New Testament, the g ospel of Luke provides the fullest account of this event. 32 In formulating his own version of the annunciation, Tanner continued his practice of mimicry by appropriating elements making revisions to the Quattrocento model. His modifications offered a corrective Methodist The Annunciation (Figure 3 5), Tann er attempted to remedy the centuries of representations that portrayed biblical women as idealized abstractions, devoid of substance and subjecthood, and ultimately Other to the men who dominated these narratives. 31 he artist once again called upon a canonical work of art as a starting point, but relied on his personal impression and experience with the image, instead of attempting a direct mimetic replication of the original. Letter from Henry to Ingeborg Curtis ca. 1909. Henry Ossawa Tanner papers, 1860s 1978, bulk 1890 1937. AAA Smithsonian Institute. 32 And in the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent from God unto a city of Galilee, named Nazareth, To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David; and the virgin's name was Mary. And the angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, thou that art highly favoured, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women. And when she saw him, she was troubled at his saying, and cast in her mind what m anner of salutation this should be. And the angel said unto her, Fear not, Mary: for thou hast found favor with God. And, behold, thou shalt conceive in thy womb, and bring forth a son, and shalt call his name JESUS. He shall be great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest: and the Lord God shall give unto him the throne of his father David: And he shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever; and of his kingdom there shall be no end. Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. And, behold, thy cousin Eli sabeth, she hath also conceived a son in her old age: and this is the sixth month with her, who was called barren. For with God nothing shall be impossible. And Mary said, Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to thy word. And the angel departed from her. Luke 1:26 38

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131 n a humble, but warm and welcoming domestic environment once again reinforcing the importance of home. 33 The rich palette of deep admittedly faded, fresco in San Marco. B golden expression, but she bows slightly in deference with her arms crossed in front of her stomach in a gesture of pra bellished with gold embroidery communicates his divine status. His wings are comprised of sharp ang ular forms, fashioned with layers of fant astic multi chromatic feathers. Annunciation is a highly idealized rendering of the miraculous encounter, leaving the fresco formulaic and emotionally sterile. In contrast, Tanner presented these bibl ical characters in a way that emphasized an emotional and material authenticity. At this point in his academic education, as well as the realism of Eakins and Benjamin Constant, still had a considerable influence over his aesthetic approac h. While the academic realism of The Annunciation may be attributed to an emulation of his teachers, it was also an approach that contributions to a spiritual life. Helen Cole, a contemporary journalist for Brush and Pencil described the studied The Annunciation 33 The Annunciation ; however Ing eborg Curtis he mentions that they first met during the summer, which would make it impossible for Jessie to be the model for The Annunciation which was completed the spring of 1898 and shown at the May Salon before they met in Barbizon. Mathews, Henry Ta nner: American Artist 94 96 and Mosby, Henry Ossawa Tanner 162. Further and shoulders of a young woman in profile, who appears strikingly similar to the figure of the Virgin in the 1898 The Annunciation

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132 The young Jewish peasant sitting on the edge of a couch, wearing the common striped cotton of the Eastern women of the poorer class, a costu me which they have kept to the present day, no halo or celestial attributes about her, and only the flood of golden light to herald the approach of the angel. It was decidedly an unconventional treatment of this subject, a favorite one with the old masters 34 Tanner portrayed Mary perched anxiously on the edge of her bed. It appears that interior, has just awoken her. Her sublime fear and awe of the holy presence is e xpressed through her tightly clasped hands and indirect gaze. Mary shrinks into her voluminous robes, only revealing her toes, which peek out the bottom of her garment. She is overcome by the heavy fabric, which itself becomes lost within a sea of blankets on the bed. Her frail form is silhouetted against the dark maroon textile hanging behind the bed. Tanner portrayed her as a noble, but also sympathetic figure, foreshadowing the struggles and t ragedy that lay ahead for her. Unlike the ivory skinned, golde n blonde Virgins created by Botticelli and Da Vinci, which would inspire modern portrayals by Edward Burne Jones and others in the Pre Raphaelite perceptive, and knowing eyes. The artist does not idealize the Virgin in a manner that aestheticizes her into a beautiful object or set of surfaces to be worshiped. This manner of idealization was typical in Marian imagery from Fra Angelico to the Pre Raphaelites, which remained popular with conservative audiences and patrons into the late nineteenth century. Burne Jones described the Virgin as a beautiful stoic figure lacking substance and pe rsonhood (Figures 3 6 and 3 7). expressed in an interview with the African American artist Hale Woodruff. When asked about his artistic influence, Tanner explained why he did not find great inspiration in Italian Renaissance art: this reduced man to a 34

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133 35 In composing The Annunciation Tanner rejected idealization and purity and authenticity. He did not offer her any holy attributes or embellishments to suggest her divine nature, rather emphasized her corporal and emotional reality, representing the Virgin as a convincing image o f a pious Palestinian teenager. ent studies the shelf are items the artist would have likely seen and documented during his travels in Palestine, which provided the canvas a heightened degre idealized, emotionless Pre Raphaelite Virgins, the reserved Mary communicates her acceptance of the heavy burden ahead of her, but also hesitation and a sense of self doubt, reinforcing the humanity and realism of this encounter. She gazes shyly and indirectly at the holy presence in her bedr oom, which is manifested in a c olumn of brilliant white light. Paris Salon in May of 1898 reviews of The Annunciati on noted the unique portrayal of the figure of Gabriel. In keeping with his previous use of light as a signifier of holiness, Tanner presented a radically modern interpretation of Gabriel, which rejected the traditional anthropomorphized form that was stan dard since the middle ages. Instead, white hot light that illuminated the face and anxiously clasped hands of the Virgin. The intense spiritual powe r of this being is suggested through the materiality of thick pure white and yellow impasto. The direct, wet on wet application of paint provides a tactile materialism and academic realism that is in keepi ng with the technique and realism s 35

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134 mystical and esoteric aspects of Symbolism. This early attempt to bridge academic realism and The Annunci ation enough in this generation capable of touching the chords he has touched for few have the 36 During his visit to the convent of S Annunciation Tanner likely took notice of the inscription that accompanied the fresco. Renaissance a rt specialist William Hood has identified the top inscription as a hymn to the Virgin, which was painted at the end of the fifteenth century. 37 The lower inscription painted in black letters was likely added by Fra Angelico himself. In Latin, it reads : VIRGINIS INTACTE CVM VENERIS ANTE FIGVRAM PRETERVNDO CAVE NE SILEATVR AVE. Translated image of the Ever Virgin, take care that you do not neglect to a reminder to the Renaissance inhabitants and modern viewer that when Domini can practice, the friars would genuflect when praying the Hail Mary, mobilizing a n interaction with the fresco that echoed the gesture made by the Angel Gabriel. 38 Additionally, during his time in San Marco, Tanner would have also viewed the Fra Coronation of the Virgin in cell 9 of the dormitory as part of the fresco cycle (Figure 3 8). Much like the Ma riology that was emphasized by p apal decree of the nineteenth century, not based on 36 37 Hood believes the top inscription was added at the same time as the inscription on the Saint Dominici with the Crucifix diagonally opposite, probably in the late 1490s William Hood, Fra Angelic: San Marco, Florence (NY: George Braziller, Inc ., 1995), 71. 38 William Hood, Fra Angelico: San Marco, Florence 72.

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135 biblical scripture and was therefore rejected by Protestant faiths. In his analysis of this fresco 39 As a Christian invested in the Protestant teachings of the AME Church, Tanner certainl y would not have ascribed to, and may have even been offended by, Catholic Marian imagery that frescoes were intended to inspire devotion and prayer to the Vir gin Mary, a practice condemne d by Protestant doctrine as it was maintained that Mary was human and prayer was reserved for the divine. In the Methodist tradition, Mary was considered a pious example for Christians to emulate, but was not immaculately born without original sin and should not be worshiped or prayed to directly. The AME Church viewed excessive devotion to Mary as a distraction from as the Queen of H eaven were considered blasphemous or potentially idolatrous by many Protestant denominations. ically divine, and formulaic portrayals of the Virgin inspired him to create an image of the annunciation that expressed wh at he believed to be emotions. In his effort to refocus Christian worship on Christ, I propose that Tanner used the realism of Mary as a foil to the abstraction of the A nge g ospel. 40 39 eyes, and that the viewer, like the saints, is somehow privy to an occurrence so transcendent that its representation is lifted above the plane of reality, where heavy, corporal bodies must be shown responding to the pull of gravity and interrupting the f all of light. In this fresco Fra Angelico: San Marco, Florence, 101.

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136 asks how it is possible for her to conceive a child when Then said Mary unto the angel, How shall this be, seeing I know not a man? And the angel answered and said unto her, The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the H ighest shall overshadow thee: therefore also that holy thing which shall be born of thee shall be called the Son of God. 41 the Holy testimony that The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Highest shall overshadow thee to represent Gabriel, I believe that Tanner sought to conflate the Angel Gabriel with that of the Holy Spirit, whom M ethodists view as part of the Holy Trinity being one with God and Christ. The AME Church Articles of Faith outlines the belief Holy Ghost, proceeding from the Father and the Son, is of one substance, majesty and glory with 42 To strategically merge these divine figures, Tanner once again appropriated from the history of Christian art, as the divine power of the Holy Spirit was traditionally communicated in the form of l ight, fire, or a dove Tanner rendered the Holy Spirit as a modern abstraction because he understood that humans struggled in comprehending the impossibility of three divine entities being one. Accepting and believing in the Holy Trinity required faith and mental 40 This does not appear to be the only instance that Tanner attempted to combine two gospel storie 1905 Christ at the Home of Mary and Martha the strange pentimento in the right of the composition might be the obscured figure of Judas. Dewey Mosby suggests that the artist attempted to combine the narrative provided by Luke in which Jesus reproves Martha for criticizing Mary for not helping her serve, and the g ospel of John 12:1 8 in money to the poor instead. Both narratives occur i riticism, and the background figure Henry Ossawa Tanner 190. 41 Luke 1:26 38. 42 church.com/our church/our bel iefs/

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137 abstraction, which Tanner felt was best communicated in pictorial terms through visual abstraction. This is reflected and visualized sublime spiritual light, an experience Tanner invites the viewer to share and co ntemplate. and human emotions as antithetical to the abstract nature of the divine. In interpreting a nature, and instead, offered her the personhood, substance, and the subjectivity she was stripped of for centuries through her portray al in Catholic art. While Hen ry Tanner shared an affinity with the figures of Lazarus, Martha, Mary, and the archetype of the good shepherd, returning to their narratives throughout his career, the artist had a special fondness and attachment to the Virgin Mary, demonstrated by her appearance in dozens of his canvases. The Annunciation Virgin, and to this day, remains the most celebrated. After his marriage to Jessie in December of 1899, the artist would redo uble the humanity of his Marian imagery by modeling her likeness on that of his bride. Mary (La Sainte Marie) (Figure 3 9) exhibited at the 1900 Salon is the first of many canvases in which Jessie woul d stand in for the Virgin Mary. The artist situated M ary seated on a carpet in the interior of an austere Middle Eastern spiritual experiences and contemplation, in Mary Jessie as the Madonna engages the viewer, gazi ng pensively reaffirms his efforts in The Annunciation not to idealize her as stoic or abstractly beautiful, but

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138 rather, to imbue Mary with real emotion, which spills out of the c omposition through her connection The sorrowful expression and intense emotion conveyed by the Virgin was unconventional, but not without precedence. Instead of the formulaic Madonna and child composition, Tanner drew from the Mater f Sorrows, imagery frequently depicted her slumping ; from Mater Dolorosa types by portraying Mary as a new mother, wel l before the passion of Christ. Mary which broke with the long history of Madonna and child iconography was the conspicuous absence of the baby Jesus. The only of white blankets on the floor before Mary. Daniel B of this canvas points to Adolphe Jean Dagnan Madonna and the Rose (Figure 3 10 ), in which the painter concealed the face of the baby Jesus. 43 contemporary, the journalist Helen Cole, supports this sug gestion in her 1900 profile on the artist Bouveret, who Tanner acknowledges has influenced him to some 44 Although Tanner may have appropr iated the veiling or concealing of the baby Jesus from Dagan Mater Dolorosa he pushed this pictorial strategy further, completely 43 Smithsonian Studies in American Art vol. 2, no. 2 (spring 1988): 64 73. 44

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139 shrouding and obfuscating the child, throwing its likeness and presence into question. While it is impossible to s ubstantiate without the artist or intense sadness modeled by Jessie and the omission of the baby Jesus conceive a child at this time. preoccupation with motherhood is f urther demonstrated by the Shortly after his marriage, the artist conceived of the idea for a series of illustrations that portrayed biblical women. He proposed the idea to Edward Bok, the editor of the Ladies Home Journal who commissioned six illustrations describing episodes in the lives of noteworthy mothers of the Bible. 45 containing all or nearly all f 46 women, but to do so for a female audience. Ultimately, only four images portraying Sarah, Hagar, Rachel, and Mary were published between 1902 and 1903. 47 Scaling back the project was 48 45 Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit edited by Anna O. Marley, 147 156. (LA: University of California Press, 2012). 46 47 Sarah appeared in September, Hagar in October, and Rachel in the November 1902 issues of Ladies Home Journal. The last of the series, Mary, was not published in sequence appearing later in the January 1903 issue. 48 After receiving the paintings for Hagar, Rachel, and Mary, Bok contacted Tann er to inform him that the originals would be more difficult and expensive to reproduce than previously thought and requested that the artist scale down the series to four instead of six images. LHJ was illustrated using a photomechanical process, which con verted original painting 154.

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140 None of the original paintings survive, but sketches and the f inal printed images in Ladies Home Journal clearly point to Jessie as the model for all of the biblical mothers. As art historian Michael Leja has identified, with the exception of the Virgin Mary, selection of biblical mothers was in itself a ch allenge (Figures 3 women Tanner chose to include in the published series, only one, Mary, could possibly be mother of Jesus ressive mother by any standards was unusual, given that 49 More unconventional were the figures of Sarah, Hagar, and Rachel who shared their husbands with other w omen. 50 In an effort to make the se biblical mothers suitable to the standards of Belle p oque propriety, Tanner chose s ympathetic and positive aspects related to their difficulties with motherhood and family. By early twentieth century norms, all of the wom en he portrayed had a very complex and untraditional relationship with their husbands. If the autobiographical nature were infertile for much of their lives, is unfulfilled d esire for a child of their own. Abstraction as Camouflage for the Re Presentation of Women in Christian Art As Tan ner collaborated with his friends and family to correct the portrayal of holy women, such as the role of home in a fulfilling spiritual life, he began to experiment with abstraction and embrace the aesthetic philosophy of the Symbolists. Diverging f rom the realism he employed to 49 50 Sarah gave her husband Abraham to her maid Hagar and Rachel shared her husband J acob with her sister Leah.

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141 his own stylistic and spiritua l approach to making modern religious art. During the first decade of the twentieth century, the figures Tanner incorpora ted in his biblical canvases became increasingly simplified and abstracted allowing him to render their gender and racial ide ntity as unfixed and ambiguous. urban incandescence of Paris, the artist found new inspiration on the taplean coast in the blue green natural glow of the evening and moon lit sky. During the summers the Tanners spent in Trpied, Henry Tanner also became interested in creating nautically themed biblical images. He painted multiple versions of Christ walking on water and the miraculous haul of fishes, which took place on the Sea of Galilee. In his study of the taples art colony, Jean had a strong air of scenes viewed at Trpied and taples. The figures in The Disciples See Christ Walking on the Water (ca. 1907) and like those in The Disciples on the Sea of Galilee, 51 07 canvas The Disciples See Christ Walking on the Water (Figure 3 12 ) is an innovative vertical composition in which the artist placed the horizon line at the top of the canvas, which cropped the mast of the fishing boat. The distinctive composition does n ot include the night sky; rather Tanner illuminated his canvas by rendering the full moon as an iridescent reflection among the impressionistically applied blue and green pigments that created a heavily factured chalky surface to describe the glowing Sea o f Galilee. An amorphous divine presence appears on the horizon, taking on a form similar to that of the column of light in The Annunciation (Fi gure 3 5 ). The apostles depicted in the boat direct their attention to this spiritual 51 Jean

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142 being with a sense of fear 52 I n transforming the taples coast into the Sea of Galilee, Tanner called on several New on water. 53 Using the g ospels as a point of departure, Tanner offered a uniquely modern y women and focus on the lives of the male apostles. In his nautically themed biblical canvases, Tanner sought to remedy the homosocial conventions of Christian art by making visible a female presence within these traditionally male dominated narratives. N one of the New Testament accounts name all of the t, according to the custom of Christian art, including famous portrayals of this subject by Rembrandt, Boucher, and ntemporary, Tissot, those present are portrayed as men (Figures 3 13 and 3 14). activities were segregated, relegating the Other sex to the domestic realm, however, as in dicated in the scripture, Jesus had both male and female disciples, breaking with first century Jewish gender and social norms. According to the New Testament, Jesus openly addressed women in public outside the confines of their homes and had female follow ers that traveled with him, defying their occlusion and confinement to the private sphere. In his The Disciples See Christ Walking on the Water Tanner worked to re present women into the traditional homo social spaces of Christian art. 52 Matthew 14: 24 28. 53 Matthew 14: 22 33, Mark 6:45 53, and John 6: 15 21.

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143 olved during the first decade of the twentieth century, his figures as an artist and the desire to develop his own stylistic idiom. In addition to aesthetic co ncerns, the simplification and abstraction of the human figure, which he frequently employed in ambiguous in terms of gender and race. In this sense, the form al aesthetic abstraction of holy figures functioned as a form of camouflage. The artist substituted the dark warm palette and domestic interiors he became recognized for at the Salon, with blue green ethereal ambiguity rendering the gender and race of the characters in these biblical landscapes un fixed to disrupt and confuse Belle poque binaries. T his strategy is illustrated in The Disciples See Christ Walking on the Water which included seven figures in the fishing boat, four of them veiled, rendering their gender identity unknown and open to interpretation. The simplification of the figures, and their veiled garments, which is more typical of biblical and modern Middle Eastern women, allows for the possibility that both male and female followers of Chr The Disciples See Christ Walking on the Water rendered the race and gender of the disciples enigmatic an etching from 1910, Christ Walking on the Waters (Figure 3 15), more definitively incorporated w spel narrative. printing press and his collaboration with artists who worked in this medium, allowed him to experiment with etching. Lesag prompted Tanner to handle the burin or to blacken the lithographic stone it also revived his

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144 af 54 The Disciples See Christ Walking on the Water portrayed nine apostles in a n taplean style fishing boat. The most prominent figure, situated in the bow of the boat, is likely the apostle Peter. Tanner singled Peter out by portraying him in light robe and a dark cape a is turned to the viewer, as he grasps the edge of the boat to focus, in astonishment, at the apparition of Christ, rendered as anamorphous light, in keeping with the previous 1907 painted version o f this narrative (Figure 3 12). Tanner again described the apostles using an abstracted short hand that rendered them relatively ambiguous. Separated from the primary figure of Peter, the other eight disciples occup y the hull or sit in the stern of the vessel. Several of these figures are depicted with beards or turbans indicating t heir gender as the more traditionally represented male followers of Jesus. However, at the apex of the stern, Tanner arranged a group of three figures. Two of them are identifiable as men, but the third lacks facial hair, and is veiled in the convention of Marian imagery, suggesting that the figure is a woman. The veiled head of this female follower of Christ is placed parallel with that of between the two, or their equal importance. A later biblically themed marine painting, the Miraculous Haul of Fishes ca. 1913 1914 (Figure 3 16), reinforces my suggestion that Tanner soug active contributions in Christian narratives by representing them as disciples. Through his art, Tanner attempted to correct the long history of patriarchal Christian imagery that minimized 54

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145 hurch by visually excluding them as witnesses to these miracles despite their presence in the g believers. This critique and correction of hist oric imagery may also point to the long standing socia l segregation and subjugation of women within patriarchy, which Tanner recognized denied them certain civil rights, educational, and professional opportunities, but were challenged by th e remarkable women in his life. I n his Miraculous Haul of Fishes Tann er chose to include more figures in the fishing ve ssel than was indicated by the g ospel. According to John 21:1 14, there were seven disciples who were witness to this miracle, which occurred after the resurrection of Christ. John names the apostles Peter, Thomas, Nathanael, the sons of Zebedee, James and John, and notes the presence of two unnamed and un pects of the composition. The four net pullers on the port side of the vessel echo its shape; Peter and his oar and the other oarsman provide vertical and diagonal elements. The two disciples in the foreground who pull in the net and the figure behind and 55 In his analysis of the canvas, Dewey Mosby identified nine apostles, however, I would canvas highlight s the role of Peter within the g Simon Peter, mans an oar and is without a cloak; his light encircled head inclines toward a bright 56 Instead of representing a mauve heap of cloth in the bow of the bo at, I interpret the abstracted form as a tenth female figure holding a child (Figure 3 17). T he female disciple is rendered with blond hair, wearing mauve clothing. Her back is positioned 55 Mosby, Henry Ossawa Tanner 238. 56 Ibid.

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146 aks beyond the edge of the vessel, allowing her blond hair to contrast against the blue green waves. In front of her, she holds a baby that is swaddled in a lighter hue of pink. It is unclear if Tanner intended to portray a specific female disciple, or if he considered the addition of an abstracted and ambiguous female followers unknown. 57 egalitarian approach that defied the patriarc hal structure of Judaism and ancient Mediterranean gender relations at large, as Christianity spread from the Levant to Rome and beyond, its democratic nature was restructured to adhere with the rigid patriarch al values of Roman society. According to the New Testament, women were important figure s in early Christianity, even being the first to witness and believe religion spread throughout th e Roman Empire, it became increasingly dogmatic, administrative, and hierarchal. Venerable women, like the Virgin Mary were idolized into abstraction, while the contributions of real women were suppressed or written out of history by the patriarchal struc ture of Catholicism and subsequent Protestant movements. s traditionally homosocial, was just one aspect of his larger mission to communicate the equality and unity chings. Additionally, the identity of the female figure in the Miraculous Haul of Fishes as a mother with child is significant as it represents the importance rayal of Jessie as the unconventional sorrowful biblical mother in Mary ( La Sainte Marie ) (Figure 3 57 Academy of Design for his full election in 1927.

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147 he became a mother. Jesse Ossawa Tanner was born in New York, but spent the rest of his life in France, raised between the roperties in Paris and Trpied. Contemporaries of Jessie and Henry described the complementary nature and equality of 58 Jessie played many different roles in the artist advance his career and cultivate a sens e of home, Jessie was also playing the part of temptress and inspirational muse in Salome (Figure 3 18). 59 During these years, she simultaneously appeared as the Virgin Mary, Rachel, Hagar, Sarah, Mary Magdalene, and Martha. The diverse, real and imagined, suggested that she was all o f these things to him and more. position as a mother by continuing to use her as a model for the maternal figure of the Madonna, but update d the shrouded and questionably present figure of the baby Jesus in Mary ( La Saint Marie ) (Figure 3 9 ) to incorporate the image of his own son, Jesse, as a young Christ. Tanner created two versions of the Madonna and child reading scriptures: Christ and Hi s Mother Studying the Scriptures ca. 1909 (Figure 3 19) and Christ Learning to Read in 1911. Scholars including Dewey Mosby, Alan Braddock, and Anna 58 59 Salome is the only known female nude Tanner completed, standing out as a fascinating aberration in his oeuvre for its nudity and eroticism. The canvas may have been inspired by a painted sketch Tanner completed of Jessie, t itled Head of a Girl in Jerusalem. provides an intimate canvas publically. He decl ined to exhibit Salome Grand Central Art Gallery in 1924. However, choosing to only show the canvas once certainly did not translate into his lack of affection for the work. It is telling that Tanner never parted with his Salome It was one of the few works that remained in his studio until his death in 1937.

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148 domestic and s piritual didactic moments. Christ and His Mother Studying the Scriptures genre scenes, most famously The Banjo Lesson (Figure 2 1 ). The 1909 canvas describes th e dissemination of knowledge, exchanging the male pupil e mothers played as conduits of knowledge and spiritual educators. In comparing this later canvas with his black genre scenes, Alan Braddock note Christ and His Mother Studying the Scriptures Banjo Lesson by substituting a feminized culture of writing for the emphatically masculine scene of oral instruction in th 60 Similarly, for these later canvases, Tanner employed photography as a compositional aide, capturing images of his wife and son that echoed the figural grouping of The Banjo Lesson (Figure 3 20 ). Christ and His Mother Studying the Scriptures both racial and gendered occlusion and misrepresentation. By using his son Jesse as the model for a young Jesus, Tanner offered his audience an authentic image of a multiracial figure that challenged the racial Ladies Home Journal the artist made studies, which included a charcoal drawing titled Study for Jesus (Study of an Indian), (Figure 3 21). The drawing portrayed an ethnically ambiguous young Jesus for the illu stration of Mary. 61 In the caption for the image of Mary in the Tanner provided his own text, which clearly articulated his belief in the un fixed non binary race of remain a point of discussion. 60 61 Mosby suggests that Jessie actually modeled for the figure in this study. Mosby, Henry Ossawa Tanner 179.

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149 No artist has ever produced a type, nor ever will, that has in it all that the varying minds of all 62 rist by invoking the mixed heritage of undermined the falsehood of racial binary, in his response to Tietjens, Tanner goes on 63 Alan Braddock interprets both the representation of his son as a multiracial Christ and the obj ection to Tietjens tout court the arbitrariness of color in every sense. Christ remained a unive rsal figure of humanity, 64 f maternal education also attempted to re present the intellectual contributions, not just of biblical women from past, but modern Belle poque women and the role they played in fostering an environment that nurtured both spirituality and a sense of belonging. The artist aspired service and intellect reflecting the valuable work of both Martha and Mary. The women in hand evidence and a model for the spiritual, cultural, and scholarly tellectual and social equality. 62 Ladies Home Journal vol. 20, no. 2 (January 1903), 13. 63 Letter from Henry Tanner to Eunice Tietjens dated May 25, 1914. Henry Ossawa Tanner papers, 1860s 1978, bulk 1890 1937. AAA, Smithso nian Institute. 64

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150 His upbringing and the exceptional intellectual achievements o f the women in the Tanner be available to everyone regardless of race as well as gender. Although Tanner stated that he neve r had any official pupils, inquiry in his activities in the art colony of taples makes it clear that he put his belief in the value of education into action, becoming a leader and mentor to many youn g artists who sought him out for advice. 65 The diverse race, nationality, and gender of the artists who learned from or whom Tanner influenced, serves as the most powerful evidence in his belief for equal access to educational and cultural opportunities. T apparent through his coordination and chaperoning of the aspiring Australian artist Hilda Rix, making her first trip to Morocco possible enable and aid in creating opportunities for women artists, whose efforts were marginalized by the patriarchal structure and consider that when reflecting on the c hallenges he faced as a young artist and student, Tanner chose to facilitate an artistic pilgrimage for the Australian artist that would help in advancing the her 65 Between 1890 and 1937 students flocked to Paris and Trpied to study with Tanner. Among these were Annie E.A. Walker, Meta Vaux Wa rrick Fuller (who m he forgot to pick up at the train station), William A. Harper, and William Edouard Scott. W.E. Scott suffered financial troubles while in France. Tanner invited him to stay at his home in taples and under his tutelage he was successful in showing three paintings at the Salon des Beaux Arts at Toquet in 1911. Theresa Leininger Miller, New Negro Artists in Paris: African American Painters and Sculptors in the City of Light 1922 1932 (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2011), 2.

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151 Figure 3 1 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Christ at the Home of Lazar us n.d. oil on canvas, location unknown. Figure 3 2 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Portrait of Mr. and Mrs. Atherton Curtis with Still Life n.d. oil on canvas, 6 7.6 x 73.3 cm. Smithsonian American Art Collection, Washington DC.

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152 Figure 3 3 Fra Angel ico, Annunciation ca. 1440, fresco, 230 x 321 cm., San Marco convent, Florence. Figure 3 4 Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Annunciation 1898, oil on canvas, 144.8 x 181 cm. Philadelphia Museum of Art, PA.

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153 Figure 3 5 Sandro Botticelli, The Castello An nunciation 1489 149 0, tempera on panel 150 x 156 cm., Uffizi Gallery, Florence. Figure 3 6 Edward Burne Jones, The Annunciation 187 6 1879, oil on canvas, 104.1 x 250.2 cm. Lady Lever Art Gallery, Merseyside, UK

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154 Figure 3 7 Fra Angelico, Corona tion of the Virgin, 1437 1446, fresco, San Marco convent, cell 9 of the dormitory, Florence. Figure 3 8 Henry Ossawa Tanner, La Sainte Marie ca 1898 1900 (exhibited at 1900 Salon, Paris), o il on canvas, 87.6 x 109.8 cm. Lasalle University Art Museu m, Philadelphia, PA.

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155 Figure 3 9 Pascal Jean Dagnan Bouveret, Madonna and the Rose 1885, oil on canvas 8 5.7 x 68.6 cm. Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY. Figure 3 10 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Mary Jour nal ( January 1903 )

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156 Figure 3 11 Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Disciples See Christ Walking on the Water ca 1907 oil on canvas, 126.4 x 101.3 cm Des Moines Art Center, IA. Figure 3 12 Rembrandt van Rijn, Storm on the Sea of Galilee 1633. Oil o n canvas, 160 x 128 cm. location unknown, previously Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA.

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157 Figure 3 13 Franois Boucher, St. Peter Invited to Walk on the Water 1766. Oil on canvas, Chteau de Versailles, France. Figure 3 14 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Christ Walking on the Water, 1910, etching (rest rike), 18.3 x 24.3 cm. Philadelphia Museum of Art PA

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158 Figure 3 15 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Miraculous Haul of Fishes ca. 1913 1914, o il on canvas 96.5 x 120.6 cm. National Academy of Design, N Y. Figure 3 16 Detail of Miraculous Haul of Fishes, ca. 1913 1914.

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159 Figure 3 17 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Salome ca. 1900, oil on canvas, 116.5 x 89.4 cm. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington DC. Figure 3 18 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Chr ist and His Mother Studying the Scriptures ca. 1909, oil on canvas, 124.46 x 101.6 cm. Dallas Museum of Art, TX.

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160 Figure 3 19 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Photographic study for Christ and His Mother Studying the Scriptures ca. 1909, Archives of American A rt, Washington, DC.

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161 CHAPTER 4 HILDA RIX: PROFESSIONAL AMBITION IN A NEW WORLD/NEW WOMAN Women should be allowed to do everything they prove t hemselves capable of. The work is the thing that matters not who does it. Hilda Rix Nicholas Daily Telegraph (June 9, 1927) While many Australian women participated in the arts during the first decades of the twentieth century, Hilda Rix was exceptional in challenging the gender restrictions and patriarchal structure of fine art by shunning her artists. 1 middle class upbringing afforded her the cultural training expected of a you ng lady in Melbourne society during the Edwardian era. She was not, however, satisfied with the achievements of feminine bourgeois cultivation and, with the support of her family, left Australia in 1907 to pursue advanced artistic training and a profession al career in problematic figure within the male dominated institutions and networks of Australian art. Analogous insisted that she be judged on the quality of her work alone. Like Tanner, Hilda Rix understood that to be taken seriously a s an artist, she needed to access the advanced training and privileges her male peers enjoyed requiring her to leave home. In imitating the artistic pilgrimage to Europe that aspiring male artists undertook, Rix began the 1 Strange Women: Essays in Art and Gender edited by Jeanette Hoorn, 53 64 (Melbourne, VIC: Melbourne University Press, 1994).

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162 lifelong project of seeking to con tribute to, and be recognized by the official discourses of fine art. As an outsider in relation to the normative masculine identity of Artist and professional confli cted by her ambivalent desires to mime and mock dominant artistic traditions. Her desire to struggle with the double consciousness of African American existence and the desire to be accepted by white culture on equal terms. As a s tudent in France, Rix attempted to negotiate a status that was equivalent to her male colleagues, by strategically em ulating and appropriating from her artistic mentors, depicting subject matter that was historically controlled and valued by men through their authority as life long aspirations for professional recognition and standing reveal that by rejecting the marginalized amateur role ascribed to her by patriarchal art, she instead self consciously mimicked the identity of the male artist: their training, practices, and subjects. By performing the male role of Artist, as a woman, Rix challenged the perceived naturalness and uncontested authority of male dominated ar t, imitating and replicating its traditions in a distorted and subtly modified manner. The slippages created between the Self Same of male ideals and expos e fissures in the system, which I argue, open a limited and tenuous space for herself and her art within Belle poque culture

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163 in patriarchal culture is made apparent by the near erasure of her life and work from the his tory of Australian art after the Great Depression. While in Europe, between the years 1907 1918 and again in 1924 1926, Hilda Rix worked tirelessly to achieve p rofessional success, being represented by independent galleries and exhibiting canvases at the Royal Academy, the Paris Salon, and with the Socit des Peintres Orientalistes Franais as well as enjoying the honor of being named an Associate of the Socit Nationale des Beaux Arts and having her work purchased by the French government. 2 After findi ng professional success and honors in France and enduring a series of tragedies during the First World War, Rix returned home in 1918, a celebrated artist. As she began exhibiting her paintings an d sketches in Australia, because of the conservative nature of Australian art during this period, critics disapproved of the work she created overseas especially her Orientalist imagery as being too modern and decad ent. Australian art in general remained wedded to European academic trends well into the twentieth ce ntury, long after these institutions and styles were relevant in France and England. 3 As Australian art historians Janine Burke, Jeanette Hoorn, and John Pigot have noted it was women, including Hilda Rix, who made the 2 1911 Retour de la Cha sse exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Franais, 1912 Grand March Tangier was purchased by the Muse du Luxembourg, and in 1925 In Australia is acquired by the French government. 1926 Le Bigouden Hilda Rix Nicholas: Her Life and Art 73 74. 3 An alternative interpretation, that challenges the provincial perception of Australian Impressionism, is offered by sionism in terms of its relationship to that of Paris. Even if this relationship is traced through English painting, through Whisterism or impressionistic naturalism, the central obsession remains the French Impressionist connection or its absence. The u but one of provincialism. Certainly geographical isolation meant that the relationship could not be one of slow assimilation or mutual exchange, b ut this model of dependency allows no consideration of a shared style that would acquire meaning in terms of its adaptation to local conditions. This model is, however, so strong that some art historians have even denied the existence of Australian Impress Impressionism not only denies essential stylistic and ideological differences within the group, but also excludes World Impre ssionism: The International Movement 1860 1920 edited by N. Broude, 114 135 (NY: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1990), 117.

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164 earliest contributions to Modern art in Australia. 4 Jeanette Hoorn summarizes the regressive Ho orn continues: Modernist painting was fiercely resisted by the conservative art establishment, who saw it as a decadent art, one which required little skill and suited the lesser talents of women. At the same time, contemporary critics worked to maintain the supremacy of academic painting, especially academic pastoral painting which was considered to be the pre eminent art form. This was seen to be the preserve of male artists. 5 Whereas in the Europe, the movements of Fauvism and Cubism were associated with masculine powers of abstraction and creative genius, in Australia these avant garde trends and modern ist aesthetics were connected with the feminine and accordingly ali gned with fashion, artifice and decadence. 6 Attempting to contribute and make her mark in Australian art, Rix continued her artistic mimicry by recalibrating her aesthetic and subjects to align with those of official art After the First World War, Australian art celebrated a white Australian identity through the image of the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) solider and grazier situated in ideal ized pastoral landscapes. Between 1918 and the 1940s, Hilda Rix created her own romanticized vision of Australia, which highlighted both men nation building from a female perspective, challenging the dominant masculine paradigm of the heroic male settler that was cultivated within the academy (Figure 4 1). 4 Burke, Australian Women Artists: 1840 1949 Strange Wom en: Essays in Art and Gender edited by Jeanette Hoorn, 9 27 (Melbourne, VIC: Journal of Australian Studies vol. 32 (March 1992):27 33. 5 15 and later again in the 1920s for women within t he acade mic tradition certainly as Moroccan Idyll 195 22. 6

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165 A r eviewer of June 1919 exhibition at the Anthony Horden Fine Art Gallery ely 7 By insisting on [ing] en plein air in rural Australia and taking on subject matter considered the exclusive artistic prerogative independent, public, and aspiring woman was made uncomfo rtably visible for the patriarchal held that her unapologetic desire to add her voice and vision to a male dominated art world ultimately led to her censure from major exhibitions a nd art criticism within her lifetime. Pigot argued: Achieving any lasting recognition was difficult for the majority of women painters, because gendered boundaries that were maintained by a well established and patriarchal cultural frame work largely determined the nature and reception of their art. Acknowledgment of these boundaries, and a willingness to work within consequences for a woman like Hilda Rix Nich olas who was unwilling to play by self destructive; the art establishment was not prepared to let a woman contravene the rules of representation that had so effectively preserv ed its power in Australia. 8 It is clear from her own correspondence that the artist attributed her exclusion from exhibitions and museum acquisitions to the threat her gender represented to patriarchal authority, 9 contributed to her occlusion f rom Australian art history; yet, it was also her insistence in mimicking the official models and ideals of patriarchal art that would ultimately align her with what was perceived as a regressive form of academicism after the Depression. When si tuated within the arc of twentieth centu ry Australian artistic practice, which saw the eventual triumph 7 Quote reproduced by Hoorn in Moroccan Idyll 188. 8 Pigot, Hilda Rix Nicholas: Her Life and Art 1. 9 Letter to Howard Ashton, Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS 9817, National Library of Australia.

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166 of m odernism during the mid century, by the time of Hilda Rix death in 196 1, her nationalist painting of an Australian Arcadia appear ed out of touch, unconvincing, and unworthy of study when compared to contemporary artistic trends. In her que st to obtain official recognitio n as an artist, but also her sincere desire to highligh t what she understood as the beauty and unique character of Australia, Hilda Rix aligned herself with established and conservative academic art institutions and traditions in Europe and lance in miming masculine conventions is demonstrated by her initiative to compose an autobiography in the Vasarian tional Library of Australia. Not unlike Henry American readers, in which he lived and worked 10 at the end of a long career, seeking to control her own narrative, Hilda Rix mimicked the Vasarian biographic model to shape her artistic legacy as a refracted reflection within the Self Same mirror of patriarchal art. Mimicking the trope of ar tistic prodigy and discovery that sets young talent on a predestined path of greatness, Hilda Rix appropriated the model of canonical figures, such as Giotto and Michelangelo. In recounting her earliest memories, Rix claims to have had a crayon in her hand at the age of three. 11 By composing potential reader an engaging artistic journey that took her from being punished for neglecting her 10 11 National Library of Australia.

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167 elementary school work in favor of sketching to traveling to the other si de of the world and back to establish and legitimi ze her place in Australian art. Australia and Europe before World War One, exploring the ways in which she contended with an autobiography in the twilight of her career, which self consciously mimics the patriarchal canonical tradition, as an extraordinary example of her enduring commitment to work within the privileged arena of male dominated fine art. As the patriarchal system of Australian art made attempts to suppress her work, Rix stood her ground and demanded to retain the place she struggled to acquire by writing herself into an existing histo ry of art. Her In Search of in fighting for her talents and contributions, as a woman and an Artist, to remain visible. The State of the Arts in Edwar dian Australia: Heidelberg School Mythology Before the foundation of the National Gallery School of Victoria in 1 867, fine art instruction in the antipodean British colony was virtually non existent, requiring ambitiou s art students to travel to Europe. 12 When Australia was first established as a penal colony in the bay of Sydney in 1788, colonizers had little concern for the luxury of art. The focus of early settler s image making centered on documenting the topography in addition to the native inhabitants, 12 The National Gallery of Victoria Art School was established in 1867, but soon after split into two distinct institutions in 1 870, the School of Art and the School of Design. Between 1872 and 1873 both were incorporated students in the New South Wales Academy of Art in 1875. South Australia was not to be outdone and in 1892 incorporated a School of Design into the Gallery of South Australia in Adelaide. The successive foundation of art academies in major Australian cities signified the desire for a new degree of prof essionalism and seriousness in artistic practice. However, like their antecedents in Europe, these institutions of artistic education were structured to privilege male students and professional careers.

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168 plants, and animals. These efforts were aligned with Enlightenment disciplining and categorization of knowledge ra ther than aesthetic expression. Until the end of the nineteenth century the majority of artists workin g in Australia were not born on the continent, but immigrated to the colony after acquiring training in European ateliers. White Australian born individuals interested in making art at home were limited by the lack of educational and exhibition opportuniti es, forcing them to Europe for these essential cultural experiences. Both of these factors resulted in the character of white colonial arts in Australia being quintessentially European and academic in nature up until the early to mid twentieth century, eff ectively making the n ormative identity of the Artist both white and male. e et de sculpture and George Academy fostered French and British nationalistic styles and subject matter, the foundation of the Nat ional Gallery School in Melbourne offered colonial Australians a sense of cultural self, but one that was similar to American art academies in its reliance on European tradition and eenth century, political and cultural leaders found it increasingly necessary and expedient to define their status as white Anglo Australians within the complex matrix of settler and colonialized identities that intersected and webbed through the vast terr itories of the British Empire. To propagate a sense of patriotism and identity, white colonists cultivated an official image and aesthetic philosophy of Australianness, and established a school of art to reinforc e the teaching of these ideals. Bonding over their mutual dissatisfaction with the limited curriculum and opportunities provided by the Gallery School in Melbourne during the late nineteenth century, a circle of artists, including Frederick McCubbin, Charles Conder, Tom Roberts, and Arthur Streeton gathered to discuss and debate artistic philosophies and the merits of stylistic trends emanating

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169 from Europe. 13 This group, which became known as Heidelberg School painters, crystalized white Australian nationalistic ideals into visual form adopting the b ushland as the symbolic site for the performance of heroic masculine and feminine identities, which epitomized their roles respectively as pastoralists and mothers. 14 colonist reproductive and destructive relationship with the land. The Heidelberg complementary role 15 to give birth and rear offspring, male painters of the late nineteenth century gave their archetypal Australian women limited and unsa tisfying roles i n their nationalistic tableaus. 13 The Heidelberg painters were not the first to take teaching methods. In 1880, two years before Elizabeth Rix enrolled in classes at the institution, thirty six students petitioned the trustees petition was published in The Argus October 7, 1880. Their frustration stemmed from the limited instruction offered by Eugne Von Gurard, the master of the painting school from 1870 until his retirement in 1881. Le igh Astbury estimation of the caliber of his students. During his eleven year tenure at the academy, Von Gurard confined his Von Gurard defended his method of instruction with an adequate number of professo rs in the different branches of instruction. All that could be hoped for under the circumstances was the moral endeavor of educating a number of students to see and feel correctly what the productions of Art are, without claiming to be self independent art Leigh Astbury, City Bushmen: the Heidelberg School and the Rural Mythology (Oxford, UK: University of Oxford Press, 1985), 18 19. 14 The group became known by this appellation after Sidney Dickinson, an American art critic used the term to de scribe the work of Walter Withers and Arthur Streeton. In a review published in the Australasian Critic in July of that practice which may be called, for purposes of distinction, the for their work has been done chiefly in this attractive suburb, where, with others of like inclination, they have established a summer congregation for out of Australasian Critic (July 1, 1891), 240. 15 Astbury, City Bushmen 4.

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170 Flood Sufferings (Figure 4 2 ) power by rescuing a young mother, an archetypal damsel in distress, from dangerous floodwaters that have encroached on the feminine sanctity of the domestic sphere. Heidelberg narratives idealized male settlers, miners, and graziers as actively laboring to tame and transform the land into in habitable and productive expanses, while alternatively, women were rendered as beautiful objects in aestheticized landscapes or alternatively overwhelmed by the sublime power and danger of the Australian outba ck The trio of To m Roberts, Arthur Streeton, and Charles Conder made regular outings to the rural Eaglemont estate. 16 Tom Roberts 1886, Camp (Figure 4 3) typified the plein air responses to light, atmosphere, and idealized rural subject mat ter, which have frequently been interpreted as a form of Australian Impressionism. 17 The Heidelberg School painters contributed to what Norma Broude has identified as an international movement t appeared in France, but quickly adapted to and evolved to meet diverse needs, intentions, and topographies a round the globe. Broude states: A fresh vision of the total picture with the specific characteristics of the various national schools taken into account can help us to understand French Impressionism as part of a larger movement as one specific manifestation of a century there was an impulse to paint contemporary life and experience directly 16 Recently, scholars have dispelled the myth that these artists were living ruggedly in the bushland. Clark and was no longer virgin bush by 1885. The arrival of the railway line in 1882 had increased its accessibility and considerable areas Clark a nd Bridget Whitelaw, Golden Summers: Heidelberg and Beyond (Sydney, NSW: International Cultural Corporation of Australia, Lmtd., 1985), 61. 17 The painting was a success in Australia and internationally, becoming the first work created by an Australian bor n artist to hang in the Royal Academy in London. The canvas would also receive accolades at the Paris Salon of 1892 with an honorable mention.

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171 immediacy of the experiences that the canvas mediated for the viewe r. 18 Contemporary critics in Australia linked the Heidelberg School with a negative esquisse like finish and illegibility. The prevailing aesthetic favored by the conservative Melbourne art establishment and the pri nciples taught at the Gallery School were promotion of clarity, rationality, and polished realism illustrated by obsessive detail of Pre would be absorbed by the Gallery School approach to painting as pres 19 In art historical scholarship, the Heidelberg School painters emerged as the artistic heroes Story of Australian A rt first published in 193 4, and followed by Bernard Place, Taste and Tradition 20 Arthur Streeton was one of the youngest, but ultimately, 18 World Impre ssionism: The International Movement 1860 1920 edited by N. Broude, 8 35 (NY: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1990), 11. 19 The Australasian Critic (October 1, 1890), 2. 20 These authors point to 1885 as si gnificant because it marked the year the painter Tom Roberts returned to Melbourne from Europe and initiated a movement of self conscious pictorial Australianness expressed through plein air landscape painting. Both Roberts and Frederick McCubbin were disa practices and generally found that latter to be wanting. Yet, from their shared dissatisfaction em erged an attempt to City Bushmen contributions of th e Heidelberg School. In his own survey of Australian art, Andrew Sayers attempts to debunk the contributions of artists working in the colony

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172 most influential members of the He idelberg painters by way of his position at the Gallery School and post as the art critic for The Argus sentimental the late nineteenth century were published in The Argus throughout the 1930s. 21 The artist had a principal 22 The origin myth of a n independent Australian style that was attributed to the Heidelberg School retained its popularity throughout the twentieth century because this circle of artists fortuitously came into the consciousness of the Australian public when the six colonial prov inces an image and national aesthetic that celebrated their new level of independence and self in 1901 intensified nationalistic efforts to instill an image of cultural white Australianness, embodied by the pastoralist and overstated, if not entirely superfi cial, claims of communion with the landscape were supported by nationalistic interests in the White Australian Policy, which sought to expand control over, world view presented by the Heidelberg artists has been modified by an examination of the work of late nineteenth century women painters. See Andrew Sayers, Australian Art (NY: Oxford Univers ity Press, 2001), 79 80. 21 pastoral locale and masculine mythology that surrounded the Heidelberg School. Streeton early twent ieth his eye on an easy public of unim taken on the qualities of a national vice. Bernard Smith, Taste, Place and Tradition: A Study of Australian Art since 1788, 2 nd edition (NY: Oxford University Press, 1979,) 14 6. 22 Andrew Sayers, Australian Art, 80 82.

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173 delivered a ttractive landscapes that artfully occluded Aboriginal presence and linked national progress with the white occupation, settlement and cultivation of this land. As the leaders of the six Australian colonies negotiated their own independence from Britain, throughout these debates, suffragettes maintained their presence in the public discourse fighting for and ultimately achieving enfranchisement in the newly formed Australian Commonwealth. 23 The feminist movement that flourished in Australia during the late nineteenth The political and social climate leading up to the unification and federation of the six colonies in 1901 was a unique moment during which women made a dvances gaining access to educat ional and career opportunities. In author Caroline Ambrus, characterizes the decades 24 A t the turn of the century women from all walks of life were agitating for change. feminist activism during the 1880s and 1890s coincided with the radical and national sentiments that prevailed in the six colonies as part of the process of newly established social order was still malleable and there was less resistance to change than in Britain where centuries of tradition were a formidable obstacle. 25 23 Neighboring New Zealand and the Cook Islands were the first to grant women enfranchisement in 1893. The restricted Aboriginal voting rights, which were not established until 1963 and with Queensland being the last state to conform in 1965. 24 Caroline Ambrus, 11. 25 Ibid., 15.

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174 As evidence of new opportunities for women in Australia, from its inception in 1870, the N ational Gallery School in Victoria welcomed women to enroll in coursework. Yet, although women could enroll in coursework, it was only after years of petitioning that female students were offered access to life drawing classes, which were introduced into t he curriculum in the early 1880s. Once allowed, these classes were strictly segregated by the gender of students and models. By comparison, in France after decades of petitions, women finally gained access to the hallowed ateliers of the cole des Beaux Ar ts in 1897, well after the institution was displaced by private ateliers and increasingly popular alternative exhibition opportunities. 26 Although women were allowed to study at the Gallery School, John Pigot described the obstacles they faced in overcoming ambitions were incompatible with, and detrimental to her prescribe d role as mother and caregiver. Women were tolerated at the School, but the gendered structure of Australian society meant tha t their achievements were not acknowledged in the same way as take up a professional career as a fine artist was still an unusual proposition in the early 1880s. 27 As is the story of art in Europe and the United States, Australian women were also limited and culturally defined by their biological and domestic responsibilities, expected to fulfill their patriotic duty by contributing children and maintaining a home. Accordingly, it w as not the women artists of the Gallery School, but the men of the Heidelberg School who are credited 26 When compared to their female counterparts in Europe, especially women artists seeking to access the prestigious cole des Beaux Arts, it appears, at least on a superficial level, that aspiring women in America and Australia enjoyed more opportunities to acquire academic training in the visual arts. Women fa red better in England. At its inception in 1768, the Royal Academy had two members, Angelica Kauffman and Mary Moser. During the nineteenth century women were forced to petition the Royal Academy School for entrance. The Academy began accepting petitions i n the 1840s and enrolled the first female student, Laura Herford, in 1860. 27 Pigot, Hilda Rix Nicholas, Her Life and Art 4.

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175 postmodern revisions of the history of European art, the ack nowledgment, rehabilitation, and challenge of canonical knowledge and histories of the colony and commonwealth. When reconsidering the history of Australian art, it becomes evident that men of the Heidelberg School were not the only individuals attempting to document or create an image of Australianness leading up to Federation. Long overshadowed by their famous male peers, there were women artists who negotiated the patriarchal art world of the late nineteenth century and worked alongside the more famous mal e members of Heidelberg School. Although she attended the Gallery School with Tom Roberts and Frederick McCubbin, until recently Jane Sutherland was written ou t of the male dominated mythology of the Heidelberg School. Sutherland occupied a unique position in late nineteenth century Australian art being the first woman invited to join the Buonarotti Society in 1884, the preeminent arts socie ty in Melbourne, and was the first female member to be elected to the council of the Victorian Artists Society in 1900. 28 Despite the subsequent suppression of her work from the Heidelberg School narrative established by Streeton and reinforced by subsequent art historians, S utherland did work en plein air alongside Roberts, McCubbin, and Streeton to sketch and paint landscapes in Alphington, Templestowe, Diamond Creek, and Box Hill. 29 Similar to the societal restrictions that governed the appropriateness of subjects and modes of practice for women Impressionists in France, as a bourgeois lady, Sutherland had to carefully negotiate how and 28 The Search for Artistic Professionalism in Melbourne: the activities of the Buonarotti Club, 1883 No. 88 (December 2011) http://latrobejournal.slv.vic.gov.au/latrobejournal/issue/latrobe 88/t1 g t16.html 29 Clark and Whitelaw, Golden Summers, Heidelberg and Beyond 28.

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176 the author describes the limitations Suthe rland had to contend with as a woman working in a In 1885 she accompanied Tom Roberts, Fred McCubbin, E. Phillip Fox, Walter Withers and other artists on sketching trips, but, as a properly brought up Victorian lady, constrained as much b y social convention as by cumbersome, restricting clothes, she certainly could not have camped out with them on their weekends spent in the bush. 30 Two Figures in a Field (The Mushroom Gatherers) (Figure 4 4) ent to the Heidelberg impressionistic aesthetic and rural subject matter, while presenting an alternative to the overt masculine imagery created by her peers. As was typical of Heidelberg landscapes, the two female figures that occupy this scene are positi oned at a distance in the middle ground next to a protruding tree stump and are subsumed within the land through the high horizon line. Behind the women hazy pink and lavender rolling e of light blues, rosy mauve and purple hues distinguished her work from the yellowed, sun scorched brushscapes of McCubbin, Ro While the broken brushwork and sensitivity to natural light are aesthetic preoccupations she shar within this idealized pastoral landscape is unique when compared to the tradition of feminine Flood Sufferings (Figure 4 2). Departin g from the inactive, but beautiful women as objects, lounging decoratively in nature or the archetypal damsel in sedentary, secondary, or subservient to a heroic m ale presence in the composition. Instead, 30 Burke, Australian Women Artists, 1840 1940 28 29.

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177 and contribution to the h ousehold in the gathering of food. sk of gathering mushrooms is presented as leisure opposed to necessity. The figure on the left bends over to collect mushrooms, which her companion gathers in her white apron. The artist offered an image of women engaging directly and working with the land but also one that eschews the hard peasant labor and sense of dire need described in French Barbizon School canvases that inspired Roberts Two Figures in a Field as a reflection of Su never been glamorized as have been daring or dangerous heroic male occupations. It is also true that upper middle class women like Jane Sutherland would not have been closely engaged w ith physically hard housework and they would have been trained to think it an unsuitable subject for 31 Sutherland offered an alternative anti heroic feminine vision of the land that drew upon her own experiences as a bourgeois woman who found com fort and communion with nature. the twentieth century by the overt masculine proclivities of the Heidelberg School mythology, during her upbringing and cultural education in Melbourne, Hilda Rix would certainly have been artistic ambitions we re outside the normative boundaries of cultural production designated fo r women in Australia, women could successful ly contribute and negotiate their plac e within the world of fine art. 31 Ibid., 30.

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178 Hilda Rix benefited from the successes of the pioneering women artists of the Gallery School and likely modeled her own artistic aspirations on the achievements of women like Sutherland. Most important to her artistic foundation was the support and encouragement she ng of the first generation of women 1880s was significant, as her male classmates Rupert Bunny, Frederick McCubbin, Arthur Streeton, and Emanuel Phillips Fox w ould come to establish the standards of practice at the school and emerge as the most successful and respected artists of that generation. Her connection tistic study and care er abroad. During the late nineteenth century, Elizabeth Rix exhibited locally and was recognized for her skill as a painter of still life and flowers. Although she was allowed to enroll in the Gallery School with other female students, her gender and resp onsibilities as a married woman ultimately negated a serious or professional acceptance of her work. 32 Despite pursuing advanced marginalized as those of the accomplish ed lady and amateur artist. By accepting and performing substantially tempered her artistic practice to focus her attention on raising her daughters and instead en couraging and supportin g their professional ambitions. 32 Female students en rolled in the Gallery School with Elizabeth Rix included: Iso Rae, May Vale, Jane Southerland, and Clara Southern, the majority of whom were never married and remained childless.

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179 Hilda Rix was born on September 1, 1884 in the city of Ballarat in Victoria, 65 miles west from the capital of Melbourne. 33 The second of two gir ls, she was raised in a respected upper middle class family. Her mother and father were born in England but arrived in Victoria as children in 1853. 34 Their families immigrated to Australia in search of financial opportunities promised by the mid nineteenth century gold rush, which resulted in the rapid population growth of free white immigrants in Victoria. Her father, Henry Finch Rix, taught at Wesley College in Melbourne and in 1884 took up a prestigious position as the Inspector of Schools for the Beechw orth District of northeastern Victoria. 35 came from an entrepreneurial family who successfully combined their musical talents with business. After Richard Sutton, the patriarch of the family, made enough money in the go ld fields, his wife encouraged him to follow his passion for music and make a profit by opening a specialty store in Ballarat that sold musical instruments. The business was a triumph, which allowed Sutton to establish a chain of musical stores making the family wealthy and culturally connected in the colony. 36 As it was in the Tanner family, the Rixes ensured that their children received a quality education, viewing knowledge and cultural accomplishments as tools for a happy and successful life. During the nd meaningful participation in public 33 ed her paintings using a monogram of E. H. Rix, however she consistently used Hilda as her first name throughout her life. 34 The shared date of arrival is purely a coincidence. 35 Pigot, Hilda Rix Nicholas, Her Life and Art 4. 36 The Suttons had shops in Ballarat, Melbourne, Geelong, and Bendigo. The original Ballarat storefront boasted a stock of 22 different types of pianos, a variety of instruments, and sheet music. Pigot also notes that this location included a hydraulic lift to transport the pianos,

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180 life. Hilda and her older sister Elsie were the beneficiaries of the changing attitu de towards ducation, which was no doubt stance and work within the state education system. 37 Despite feminist advances during the turn of the century, Australian culture retained its deeply masculin e character, due in large part to the unequal population of men to women living in the continent. 38 Although there is evidence that unmarried women did enter the workforce, a supportive role at home, as a wife and mother. Hilda Rix would have grown up in a society that offered women like her more opportunities and new accessibility to academic and cultural institutions than the previous generation, but also one that continue d to idealize sons, male professionalism, and masculine virtues. We may suppose then, that because Henry Rix did not have a male child to focus his attention on, Elsie and Hilda were granted affection and off ered choices they otherwise might not have enjoy ed if they had a brot her to contend or compete with. Schools meant that he was frequently absent from home. Elizabeth Rix filled this void and g with a cultural education and social refinement typical of bourgeois ladies. Acquiring a repertoire of talents provided young women with the ability to successfully navigate social situations skillfully conversing and entertaining, making them appealing and ultimately ideal future wives. It was expected for upper class women to have a certain level of education and amateur inte rest in music, theatre, and art; however, it was 37 remembered as a respected teacher and scholar advocating for teacher training, educat ional reform, as well as writing several textbooks on mathematics. Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS 9817, National Library of Australia and Pigot, Hilda Rix Nicholas, Her Life and Art 5. 38 It is well acknowledged that early Australian society and culture was highly masculine, due in large part to the high percentage of men who were transported to the colony as exiled British convicts.

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181 considered potentially hazardous for a young lady to allow these skills to exten d beyond that of accomplishment, espe cially if it took her outside the confines of the domestic sphere. Acquiring talents and social skills was necessary for a young lady to attract a husband, but, as Caroline nts should only be pursued professionally as a last than the possession of formal qualifications. A woman who was properly reared, with some 39 Although deeply indebted to English values and social mores, as antipodean settlers became increasingly invested in defining their own identity in the Empire, tu rn of the century Australian society and culture was not as inhibited by the entrenched traditions that structured British culture and society. With respect to art in Australia, the categories and boundaries between amateur and professional, craft and fin e art were not as clearly or rigidly delineated as one would find in the more establis hed practices of Europe. To immerse her daughters in Melbourne society, in 1895, Elizabeth Rix joined the ng place for those pursuing intellectual and artistic endeavors. The Rix household frequently hosted the monthly salons, where Hilda and Elsie had the opportunity to demonstrate their talents by reciting poetry, reading Shakespeare, and performing music an d plays. While Elsie was commended for her singing and acting, Hilda demonstrated early skills for design and draughtsmanship by creating the 40 39 Ambrus, 16. 40 Pigot, Hilda Rix Nicholas, Her Life and Art 5 6.

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182 masquerade is illustrated in a sketchbook from her childhood. This sketchbook, which is inscribed on the inside cover in pencil by the a drawing and design. It is filled with fanciful theatrical costumes inspired by idealized medieval and Shakespear ian types and studies of her friends and relatives drawn with graphic clarity (Figures 4 5 and 4 6 ) The confirms ribed her 41 In addition to the sketchbook, a collection of family photographs and news clippings preserved in the National Library of Australia, illustrat es that Elizabeth and Henry Rix fostered a home that was rich in intellect and culture. Hilda and Elise Rix were provided with the cultural education of accomplished women, but as they matured they were encouraged to pursue their interests beyond that of t he dilettante. From 1902 to 1905, early attempts to cultivate her natural talent were undertaken during who since 1888 oversaw instruction practice of drawing from casts. In her journal, Rix described the enthusiasm of leaving behind 41 Johnson, In Search of Beau 11.

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183 these antiquated practices immensely preferring life drawing classes during her European studies. 42 ve teaching during the mid 1880 s, as Frederick McCubbin became recognized by the art establishment he w the next generation of Australian art through his teaching position at the Gallery School. While still promoting an academicized impressionistic approach and dem onstrating a willingness to remained faithful to naturalism and the traditional academic tenants of clarity of c omposition and draughtsmanship. Rix advanced her skills as a draughtswoman by obsessively sketching the people she encountered with boldness and clarity. John Pigot suggested that the Pigot cl and emotion in a work of art was all of its characteristic forcefulness and vigour as well as a belief in the significan 43 Rix was among the high percentage of women enrolled in the National Gallery School, between the years of 1890 and 1914. This suggests that an advanced arts education was an acceptable and even an encouraged path for women, but it should also be noted that by steering 42 ns rather than of Australia. 43 Pigot, Hilda Rix Nicholas, Her Life and Art 7.

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184 disciplines of medicine, law, or university positions. It is possible that making a fine arts education readily accessible to women in Australia was a calculated maneuver to dissuade them from assaults on the male stronghold over more esteemed professions. While the Gallery School allowed women admission since its inception, by comparison the University of Melbourne, established earlier i n 1855 and considered the most elite and serious institution of higher education in Victoria, denied women admission into the University until 1880. Janie Burke reports that of female students, so 44 In 1890 the National Gallery School enrolled 58 male compared to a 120 female students. The years during which Hilda Rix attended the s chool the enrollment is recorded as 45 47 male to 95 87 females. 45 The numbers make it clea r that women had access to a fine art education, but their tenure at the Gallery School did not translate to successful careers as professional artists. Given the ratio of male to female students at the institution during the turn of the century, and the g ross disproportion of successful male to female professional artists working in Australia or Europe who attended t he institution, it seems that the Gallery School represented an acceptable creative outlet for women, but ultimately, very few of these studen ts had the opportunity to establish artistic careers. Individuals like Jane Sutherland, who was not constrained by financial concerns and who chose a career over marriage and motherhood, reappears in the historical narrative as an exception to the patriar chal control over professionalism, only because of the efforts made by revisionist scholarship. 44 Burke, Australian Women Artists, 1840 1940, 32. 45 Arbus, Th 14.

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185 A reevaluation of the traditional narrative of late nineteenth century Australian art reveals that more women did pursue professional c areers, if not in Austral ia, tha n as expatriates in Europe. Yet these individuals were still exceptions within what was a white male profession and they did not achieve their success without facing considerable opposition. Accordingly, Hilda Rix and her female classmates were able to cultivate their skill s and pursue an arts education; yet, regardless of talent, their efforts were inhibited by societal duty or marginalized as dilettante and amateurish. Despite the dominant population of female students at the Gallery School, women were dissuaded from professional fine art ambitions and pushed to illustration and were often disparaged, and it was felt that commercial art and the crafts w ere more viable career 46 In October of 190 7, Australian women created their first opportunity to publicly exhibit their art and crafts at the Wom exhibition was a major achievement, ganize and assert their in dependence, exhibiting their work for publi c praise and scrutiny, but it also reveals that women artists felt the need to create this event because they were not receiving the visibility they desired in the official Gallery School exhibitions wi th their male peers. By establishing a separate exhibition specifically for incompatible with the identity of male artists, creating an alternative space and class for re Willoughby states: 46 Pigot, Hilda Rix Nicholas, Her Life and Art 4.

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186 The implication of much of the press criti childcare to teaching, presents a continuum of work, rather than a clear dichotomy between the professional woman worker and the amateur. 47 William Moore the then influential art and drama critic of the Melbourne Herald off aspiring female artists from pursuing careers in his 1907 article 48 He acknowledged that i llustration was a n acceptable career goal for women who could draw, but the fine arts were still considered to be a dubious profession for wo men Moore woman to support herself as a landscape artist. 49 The woman who takes up art as career must be prepared t o go through years of training and practice af ter all these years she may find that the results for all this toil, as far as the monetary side is concerned, are despicably small. 50 Given the conservative social and cultural context of Edwardian Australia, it became apparent to Henry and Elizabeth Rix t hat if Hilda were to advance her career as an artist she limited opportunities offered by the Gallery School by studying and working in Europe. During this time, Henr near breakdown, he was granted a leave of absence and planned to use this time traveling 47 Melbourne Historical Journal vol. 29, no. 1 (2001), 163. 48 After promoting Au stralian arts in Europe, Moore relocated to Sydney working as a critic and author. In 1934 he published The Story of Australian Art the first survey of the history of art in Australia. 49 Pigot, Hilda Rix Nicholas, Her Life and Work 7 and William Moore, (December 6, 1907). 50

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187 throughout Europe with his wife and two daughters. In a tragic turn of events, Henry Rix died unexpectedly on February 27, 1907. 51 suddenly left the Rix women without a steady income. To compound on their new financial difficulties, Henry passed away before hi s retirement, which meant Elizabeth could not collect his pension from the state of Victoria. Being a savvy and well connected woman, Elizabeth Rix create the on a significantly reduced budget. During her years as a student in Melbourne, Hilda Rix exhibited drawings in the Austral the three Rix women organized an art exhibition at the Studio in the Flinders Building in Melbourne to raise funds for their travel and boarding in Europe. 52 The drawings Hilda Rix exhibited were r eviewed by a critic from the Argus who described her work as having the 53 It was clear even to this critic that Rix demonstrated potential but that she would need to look further than the National Gallery School to cultivate and ultimately capitalize on her natural talents. 51 Pigot, Hilda Rix Nicholas, Her Life and Work 7. 52 In addition to her coursework at the National Gallery School, Hilda sought out commissions for commercial The School Paper a monthly national education magazine. She was successful in sav ing 100 pounds from her illustration work, which was allocated toward her future studies in Europe. Johnson, In Search of Beauty 11 12 and Pigot, Hilda Rix Nicholas, Her Life and Art, 7 8. 53 Argus Dec. 6, 1906, 6.

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188 Embarking on a journey that would shape her life and professional career, on March 22, 1907, Hilda Rix, her sister Els ie, and their mother sailed from Melbourne on the SS Runic, beginning their nearly two month journey to the center of the British Empire. 54 After combating copiously doc umenting their seven week voyage through daily briefings, sketches, and neatly pasted and annotated postcards that highlighted picturesque topography and major attractions in the port cities they visited (Figure 4 7) Rix recorded in her journal: The life on board is great !!!!! We tramped the long decks with jolly companions, talked, watched sunsets and moonrises and passing ships and whale spouts, crossed the line. I had an industr ious fit for one week, in which I drew and painted nearly all the children on board who were willing victims. 55 Like many Australians of her generation, both male and female, Rix recognized the need to travel to the metropoles of London and Paris to acquire the experiences and training not solely an artistic pilgrimage, but also a social ritual imbricated with colonial identity formation. Angela Woollacott, aut hor of To Try Her Fortune in London: Australian Women, Colonialism, and Modernity part in the process of identity formation, offering white colonials the opportunity to negotiate their stat reconstructed their status in the British Empire through the knowledge they gleaned of the 54 Instead of traveling through the Suez Canal, to reduce the cost of their journey, the Rix women opted for a less expensive route to England, which took them around the Cape of Good Hope including stops along the west coast of Africa. As part of the journey to London, the Austr alian imperial subjects, were able to visit several colonies and territories in the Empire before reaching the colonial metropole. 55 Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS 9817, National Library of Australia.

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189 56 Australian s sense of the cultural and psychological inferiority these British subjects struggled with on account of their distance and therefore difference from the metropole, but also their desire to access the cosmopolitan urbanity and cultivated authority they believed their whiteness and connection to London symb olized. Woollacott describes how the colonial Australians viewed their identity in relation to Eng land. Australians may have hoped that the whiteness they claimed would counteract their colonial status, but this very claim became part of the cultural fabric of the British Isles themselves. Australian women who went to London followed their own individ ual paths, but they also participated in and shaped an imperial culture that was hierarchical, racist, and gendered, even as it was changing. 57 whiteness by describing encoun ters with Africans and Arabs in the coastal cities the SS Runic anchored. Mother, Elsie, and I went on shore at Cape Town Glorious place colouring gorgeous went for tram ride right up mountains around the coast heavenly Quaint white houses against intense blue sky all the buildings picturesque. On our way back to township I came through Raffer quarters cute little black babies with huge roly[sic] eyes. Being Sunday all shops were shut for which we were sorry. Managed to find one jolly rester[?] open where w e had tea with him. 58 and picturesque sights, but also evidence of the privileged viewing rights she claimed over other colonized peoples on account of her whiteness. Rix, like other white colonials capitalized on her complexion as a signifier of her special status and relation to the power Englishness symbolized. 56 Angela Woollacott, To Try Her Fortune in London: Australian Women, Colonialism, and Modernity, (NY: Oxford University Press, 2001), 19. 57 Woollacott, To Try Her Fortune in London, 17. 58 Hilda Rix Nicholas European Journal, Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS 9817, National Library of Australia.

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190 Her coded language reveals the racist stereotypes held by white colonials as a means to distinguish their diffe rence and superiority within the complex hierarchal matri x of British Imperial identity. By leaving Australia and partaking in the social gave up the stability of bourgeois Melbourne to enter a far more tenuous an d transitory state in which she was liberated from the social expectations and domestic responsibilities of raising a sublimate what would be viewed otherwise as unfemi nine professional ambitions at home. Because departing for London was a recognized cultural ritual in Australia, women could undertake this huge step without being condemned for transgressing femininity through being overly ambitious, despite contemporary cultural therefore a way for an Australian woman to express and act on her ambition. 59 travels and adv anced artistic training typical of successful male artists, but it was also her escape from the expectation of bourgeois femininity of early twentieth century Australia. In a liminal state, untethered to the continent, Rix was not under the same demands to perform her assigned professional ambitions echoes not just those of Australian male artist s but the strategic choices made by exceptional female artists, includin g Iso Rae and Jane Sutherland who never married or had children. 60 individual who demonstrated a talent in flower painti ng and still life but who ultimately 59 Woollacot t, To Try Her Fortune in London 6. 60 Records from the Sydney Society of Women Painters reveal that between 1910 and 1929 the majority of members were unmarried. In 1912 there were 40 unmarried to 7 married members and in 1922 the highest disparity of 51 unmarried to 3 married women painters. See Ambrus, 16 17.

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191 suppressed the po tential of her artistic skills to focus her attention on her responsibilities as a wife and mother. Unwilling to give up her passion, Hilda Rix was exceptional or according to a artists in Australia. require d Rix replicate the image of defined by lack in relation to the model of Artist as normatively white and male. In Austral neither of these thin gs. She rejected her feminine role and committed to work according to the professional practices of male artists. As Linda Nochlin first articulated in 1971, marriage and raising children could inhibit ossibility for creative activities outside the confines of the home. 61 Given the disproportionate proportion of men to women in Australia, it was presumed, and in fact expected, that women could marry if they desired. The single and childless status of Hild s, Iso Rae and Jane Sutherland, suggest s that they in order to advance their professional careers. 62 At the age of 23, by embarking to Europe to follow professional ambitions, it was clear that at this time in h er life, Hilda chose her love of art over any de sire for marriage and children. Artistic Ingnue in Europe patriarchal models, it becomes clear that, instead of faithful ly replicating the feminine role of 61 Women, Art, and Power and Other Essays 145 178 (NY: Harper & Row, 1988). 62 Caroline Ambrus, Picture Show, 16 17.

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192 ion of lack and instead adopt ed and perform ed the role of the male artist, mimicking and mirroring his practices and subjects. By embarking on the quest to acquire advanced arts training in Europe and entering into the male defined a nd dominated spaces of the Parisian atelier and Salon Rix was acculturated dominant wh iteness of artistic tradition. Entering into academic practice shaped both Tanner and Rix into recognizable Others, through the pedagogical structure which dictated that both outsider artists mirror and replicate officia Rix began in May of 1907 when, after seven weeks at sea, the Rix Women arrived in Southampton. They proceeded to London by train and stayed in a boarding house, which the artist described as ed a 63 Hilda and Elsie Rix took in the usual tourist sites the Royal Academy and noted in her journal a great admirati portraits and R A The Maid a painting of Joan of Arc in battle. 64 They admired Gilded Age subjects. Hilda Rix was trained and worked as an artist during the Belle poque generation of political, social, cultural transformations, which was visualized through the coexistence of an eclectic array of avant u pbringing in the suburbs of Melbourne and cultural training in the Gallery School shaped her 63 Hoorn, Moroccan Idyll 11. 64 Ibid., 11.

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193 foundational thinking and relatively conservative views on art. Generally, the Rix women preferred tradition and academic naturalism to modern trends demonstratin g a fondness for the picturesque and romanticized historical and literary subjects. The artist disliked what she and Elsie Rix described some of the Impressionist work i 65 understanding of the gendered codes of art in which artificiality, fussiness, and attention to surface were defined as feminine During her studies in Europe Rix mimicked her male teachers, but the style she developed was not simply the result of imitating the practices of men. Rather, her commitment to naturalism and the desire to further cultivate her skills as a draughtswoman w ere a conscious effort to align herself with what were understood to be the masculine attribute s of artistic practice, namely a tradition in Disegno or drawing and design. As Tamar Garb highlights in her study of the women artists of the Union des Femmes 66 Rix developed sound drawing and painting sk ills that emphasized clarity and legibility, opposed to what were perceived as the feminine attributes of feel ing, color, and imitation. These gendered associations were wielded as pejoratives by traditional academic art to diminish avant garde 65 Hilda Rix Nicholas, Her Art and Life, 10 and 12. 66 Garb, Sisters of the Brush 106.

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194 movements, including Impressionism and Post he rself employed in critiquing Ar t Nouveau as artificial and pretentious. Aligning herself with a more conservative academic aesthetic allowed Rix to learn the codes of masculine practice that would provide her official recognition. Similar to Henry Tanner, Rix likely recognized that alre ady having two strikes against her as a woman and provincial New World outsider earning validation would be nearly impossible if she chose an avant garde or transgressive style to work in. In navigating the gendered discourse of art, the artist learned and manipulated the codes of masculine art. Her understanding of these codes is evidenc ed in a letter she composed lat 67 As such, during her time in Europe, Rix rejected the contem porary avant garde aesthetics of Cubism and Fauvism and squarely aligned herself with traditional academic and masculine values of careful draughtsmanship, s tudied realism, and legibility. In striving to work in this tradition, Hilda Rix set her sights on the challenge of exhibiting at the Paris Salon. 68 Rix, like Tanner, recognized that having work hung in the Salon was a vehicle for visibility and notoriety at home. While new exhibition opportunities rendered the Salon sponsored by the Socit des Artistes Franais irrelevant to the needs of early twentieth century avant garde artists, f or foreign especially New World painters, recognition by this esteemed institution was a milestone that many considered obligatory to advancing a professional career. John Pigot described how Australian male artists negotiated the dominant cultural tastes of Belle poque Paris and patronage to maintain lucrative careers. 67 68 Nationale des Beaux Soc it des Artistes Indpendants.

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195 Acceptance [in the Salon] meant that an artist had been admitted into a select international community of like mined painters. Medals and honours won by working in Paris generally avoided avant garde art and artists. Rupert Bunny, George Lambert and Emanuel Phillips Fox, for examp le were very successful artists in France because they conscientiously courted the Salon and its audience; their elegant and aristocratic compositions portraying the languorous and exotic life of the upper classes at leisure were well received in Paris pre cisely because they did not disrupt the status quo. 69 Seeking the same level of success achieved by these celebrated male Australian artists working in Europe, Hilda Rix adopted their conservative aesthetic, which was reinforced by the cole des Beaux Arts and proliferated in the numerous private ateliers overseen by reno wned academicians. While in London and anxious to begin her training, Rix interviewed and was accepted for in 1900. She docu mented her first encounter with Hassall in her journal, recounting that after reviewing her portfolio the 70 ix had the opportunity to work from a live model for the first time. She only spent a month in his studio, but wrote of her time there and her teacher in glowing t erms. She described Hassall as gloriously enthusiastic, came twice a day in the morning for life work and then afternoon for posters and 71 The aspiring artist did not stay long 69 Pigot, Hilda Rix Nicholas, Her Life and Art 11. 70 71 Johnson, In Search of Beauty 12.

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196 in Hassall as a commercial illustrator. 72 Six months after arriving in London in September of 1907, the Rix women decided to continue their journey on to Paris. Before reachi ng the City of Light, they were treated to a relaxing and luxurious stay in Rouen at a chateau owned by old family friends. Following the lead of many artists in Paris, the Rixes found lodging in Montparnasse settling in a pension on the Rue de Joseph Bara After enjoying the luxuries of life in a chateau, the artist lamented over the humble living accommodations of their pension writing: Oh! quel Malheur!!! Why is one born with the sympathies and feelings which fit into a chateau and then have a fortune wh ich fits into a nutshell?...But thank goodness we enjoy really everything, and although ones throat swells and ones eyes feel hot around the edges one loves to live and see everything and know miles. 73 The location was chosen for its proximity to the Rue Notre Dame des Champs and the number of schools and studios located there. 74 painters William Adolphe Bouguereau, James McNeill Whistler, Rosa Bonheur, Carolus Duran, Jean Lon Grme, Jean Paul Laurens, and many more Rix would have been familiar with. 72 Moving on from the New School may have been encouraged in part by Arthur Streeton. Before the Rixes departed original do not stay too long at any one of the schools but take what good you can from any of all them, if possible. Take your own studio and work out your own salvation ilda Rix Nicholas, MS 9817 National Library of Australia. 73 Johnson, In Search of Beauty 11. 74 1970s when the massive Tour Maine Montparnass e complex was built, it is estimated that five hundred studios were The Studios of Paris, 211 217.

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197 a welcome outdoor refuge for the Rix women to escape from their cramped lodging and the occasional unpleasant tenants t hey were forced to share their accommodation s with. 75 The gardens offered Rix an opportunity to practice plein air sketching, a skill she would capitalize on in her later taplean and Moroccan imagery. Energized by the possibilities Paris offered, Hilda se t off to explore the city making the lodgings, she was often overwhelmed by the beauty and elegance of Paris. After visiting several schools in Montparnasse, Rix e nrolled at the Acadmie Delecluse beginning classes in November of 1907. Auguste Delecluse, an academician trained by Carolus Duran, established his school in the late nineteenth century. As was the situation in most Paris acadmies, instruction at Deleclu se was centered on figure drawing and painting from models. Rix may have particularly popular with American and English women, as he provided two studio spaces for female enrollees and only one for the male students. 76 In 1900, the British publication, The compiled a report that outlined the fine art academies most advantageous for female students in Paris describing some of the perks the Acadm ie Delecluse offered. The fees for the women students are higher than those of the men; but then the a more comfortable manner, and they have a salon to themselves, while the concierge is engaged to attend to their wants, and will serve afternoon tea or luncheon to them at a very nominal cost. The students at the atelier ballot for their 75 ugh! At present several there [sic] whom we hate! So work all day, and am just there for meals and go straight up to bed after dinner. We are too poor to go away from there for son, In search of Beauty 12. 76 Edith Waldemar Leverton, "Paris Ateliers". Lady's Realm: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine vol. 8, (May/October 1900) 580 583.

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198 chan ge of a good position. 77 translating her natural proficiency in pencil and charcoal to her first attempts in oil painting. None of these oil sk etches survive, however the a rtist writes of her experience with the new medium and the process of sel ecting models at the acadmie. Alas, I felt that I was sadly murdering him [the model] for I had never painted in oils before. In one of the rest times in marched a procession of mode ls for our has a stupid smile, his expression being as vacant of sense as the basin of stuff he was stirring green stockings. He wears buckled shoes on his small fat feet. More than half of the girls put up their hands and so alas he is to pose for us some time soon. 78 After initially struggling with the new medium, Rix was determined and diligent in her 79 Resisting Reflection? The Rix women spent the Christmas of 1907 relaxing in Rouen. When they returned to Paris, the artist began the New Year by enrolling in classes with the American painter Richard Miller at the Acadmie Colarossi. 80 Richard Miller had studied at the Acadmie Julian between 77 83. 78 Hilda Rix Nicholas, European Journal, undated. Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS 9817, National Library of Australia. 79 Ibid, November 1907. 80 Acadmie Colarossi was located at No. 10 Rue de la Grande Chaumire. American Painter Clive Holland described the Acadmie and its international appeal during the early nouveau an enough, and Englishman or two, a few Americans, a couple of Japanese, a coloured gentleman, Poles, Austrians, French, The S tudio vol. 27, no. 115 (1902) and Milner, The Studios of Paris 216 217.

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199 1898 and 1901, working under Jean Paul Laurens and Benjamin Constant. When Rix entered painter earning acclaim that led to his nominati on by the French government as a Chevalier of the Legion of Honour in 1909. 81 effect was immediate and lasting. As a member of the American mo mentary effects of light through animated brushstrokes of high keyed pigment. This approach created a heavily worked surface while still retaining a sense of naturalism and pictorial structure. The academicized, distilled version of Impressionism offered B elle poque Salon painters a more modern and eclectic aesthetic, when compared to the slick varnished surfaces of conservative academicians such as Grme. This variety of Impressionism represented an aesthetic compromise, which remained popular with Salon audiences and profitable for artists throughout the Belle poque. Typical of the American Impressionist movement, Miller painted plein air landscapes, though the majority of his oeuvre consists of formulaic garden scenes and interior sunlit compositions featuring a single female figure. These young women are portrayed in a manner that reinforced the stereotypes of woman as a beautiful, thoughtless, and superficial object. onsumed by ennui. The figures are portrayed as thoughtlessly handling or playing with feminine accessories such as parasols, fans, flowers, or jewelry. Miller frequently employed the use of a mirror in h is interior compositions to offer his audience a seco nd reflected view of the 81 Pigot, Hilda Rix Nicholas: Her Life and Art, 14.

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200 aestheticized female figure, while also suggesting the superficiality and vanity of woman as fixa ted on appearance and surfaces. The Necklace from 1909 (Figure 4 8 ) The composition fea tured a single female figure seated in a boudoir embellished with luxurious patterned fabrics. The space is enlivened by sunlight, which warms the room through large windows that provide a pastel backdrop for this decidedly feminine space and offers a glim pse of pinned up at the back of her head. She leans forward towards the viewer and a mirror situated in the bottom left of the canvas. The young woman admires or co ntemplates her reflection while absent mindedly handling the necklace fast ened around her alabaster neck. She is dressed in an ivory white, off the shoulder gown that Miller rendered using light blues, swatches of yellow, and hues of pink with a loaded bru sh to convey the dappled sunl ight that animates the boudoir, which enters through windows behind the figure, offering a view of the garden outside. The gown is cinched at the waist then bursts out into a multi tired skirt that lf. The surface of the skirt is further fragmented into reflections into wet and scumbling techniques that describe the voluminous layers of white ruffles. It is likely that Miller would have returned to models he found attractive and reliable. This is evidenced by a number of identifiable women who make frequent appearances in his canvases despite the artistic license he exercised to generalize their features and costume through vigorous broken brushwork. The ha zy appearance and heavily worked surface was a modern strategy to suggest naturalism and the effects of sunlight. The mixing, matching, and recycling of systematic

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201 and predi ctable, yet his attractive women and canvases remained appealing to Salon audiences an d bourgeois patrons. into on technique taught in the Parisian acadmies. In a letter written to friends, Rix described her day Mr. Miller give his correction, and he has given me 82 As Rix became more self assured in her skills, she also began to self consciously mimic and alter the subjects of her male me ntors, creating subtle variations and correctives that resisted these masculine coded subjects, especially those that portrayed the female form in a way that incons accepting and rejecting masculine codes of representation that othered and stereotyped women. At times, it appears that Rix replicated male defined archetypes and tropes of f emininity too as a woman and an artist required careful balance and calc ulation in how she mimicked and manipulated patriarchal tradition. This process was risky in that Rix had to perform her role as an artist self Same. As Luce Irigaray warned 82 Letter written February 27, 1908. Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS 9817, National Library of Australia. In a lecture given later one may learn agile brushwork but many of his students became weak Richard Millers catching his tricks of technique without the substance of his greater gift

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202 destroying the di 83 As a student and young artist learning to negotiate the appropriation and resistance of patriarchal traditi ons, Hilda Rix experimented and struggled with the challenge of mimicking the male artist, without reducing herself or women to the stereotypical views of patriarchy. Creating a position for herself as a Subject was a complex and conflicted task that requi red Rix to fabricate a new visual language by appropriating the male position of Self, while not being reduced to it. Irigaray describes this challenging p rocess with regard to language: Hers are contradictory words, somewhat mad from the standpoint of rea son, inaudible for whoever listens to them with ready made grids, with a faithfully with words, but also of getting rid of words in order not to become fixed, congealed in them. 84 An early attempt in imitating the work of her teacher, but one that also works to reject the Pink Scarf (Fig ure 4 The Necklace not only in technique, but in the choice of subject and figural composition, qualities that she would continue to appropriate and make her own throughout her career. I would argu the same model that Miller employed in The Necklace as the white gown and pink accessory 85 ent employment of models and costumes extended to academy 83 Irigaray, This Sex Which Is Not One 76. 84 Ibid. 29. 85 This same white, off the shoulder dress appears in at

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203 The Pink Scarf from sketches an possible that both teacher and student created finished canvases featuring the same model and The Pink Sc arf was just costuming. 86 guidance to compose these later canvases. In his own s 87 In the Pink Scarf auburn haired model outfitted in a white, off the shou lder dress accented by a long blush pink scarf that falls down the back of her dress and over the multiple layers of ivory ruffles. The thick wet into growing confidence as image. It is through the juxtaposition and imperfect replication of the original that Rix begins to assert her own subjectivity and expression. The Pink Scarf as belonging to 88 Speck describes the canvas: 86 Sleepy which features a simil ar pyramidal figural composition of a woman with her back to the viewer turning left as posed in the Pink Scarf employs the same model or was made The Necklace Pink Scarf Later canvases inspired b y Miller include the Spanish themed The Masquerade ca 1913 and Spanish Shawl ca. 1936. 87 Pigot, Hilda Rix Nicholas, Her Life and Art, 14. 88 PORTAL vol. 10, no. 2 (July 2013), 5.

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204 scarf trailing around the beautifully adorned woman frames her, and accentuates her creamy off the shoulder gown. Her expansive uncovered back and shoulders are the focus of the gaze. The decorative flowery wallpaper screen behind her 89 in being reduced to the Self artist does create an image of woman that is passi ve and posed as Speck suggests; however, I see femininity. Rix repeats the stereotypes unfaithfully and unconvincingly as a means to undermine the ori truthfulness. models as a singular Woman or Other, Rix described the au burn haired model, in a manner that articulated her features and offered a degree of substance and individuality when compared to turning her face to the left. The po The Necklace (Figure 4 10 ). Instead of leaning toward the artist and viewer, the model in The Pink Scarf rolls her shoulders inward and casts her gaze downward indicating that she is aware, but not e ntirely comfortable or content with her role as the object of the gaze. There is a degree of unhappiness, reluctance, and resistance in her comportment and expression that is not found in 89

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205 Most signi paints a reflective ay, a curved or concave mirror, To put in place a mode of specularization t hat allows for the relation of woman to mind, of thought, of subjectivity. Whence the inter vention of the speculum and of the concave mirror, which disturb the staging of representation according to too exclusively masculine parameters. 90 Rix plays with the concept of artifice to highlight the painting as a construction. The elegant interior of M studio space in the far right of the canvas behind the colorful rose patterned backdrop. Throughout her career, Rix would compose images that negotiated the real and artificial in a way that attempted to give substance to her sitters, which was denied by her m ale contemporaries. While Hilda Rix internalized much from her teachers in France, perhaps the greatest influence during her first years in France was that of another Australia n artist, the Melbourne painter Emmanuel Phillips Fox. Fox was already a well known and respected artist in Australia, having found success at home and abroad in England and France. Following the path of aspiring Australian artists, after his training in M ambitions to Europe. In Paris he studied with William Bouguereau and Jean Lon Grme at the cole des Beaux Arts and alternated his summers working in taples and Brittany where he 90 Irigaray, This Sex Which Is Not One 154 155.

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206 engaged with the preva iling trend for plein air practices and impressionistic technique. 91 In 1892 Fox returned to Melbourne and established a private art school modeled after the Acadmie Julian and offered plein air painting retreats for his pupils during the summer. 92 Simila Melbourne were women. His 1895 canvas, Art students, offered an untraditional portrayal of his studio (Figure 4 11). It is very likely that the Rix women saw this painting w hen it was first exhibited in Melbourne in 1895. 93 Inhibited by the conservative artistic institutions in Australia, Fox returned to Europ e in 1901, and in May of 1905 married Ethel Carrick, an English painter. The couple moved to Paris and made their home near the Luxembourg Gardens. The couple regularly hosted gu ests, n the privacy of their small arboured garden, which provided bright 94 Carric k described the communal synergy of their Montparnasse apartment complex, t he Cit Fleurie, as s who have apartments in the 95 During their first few days in Paris, Elsie and Hilda visited the Foxes in their Paris apartment and had the opportunity to see garden that provided the colorful 12). 91 Australian Art and Architecture, Essays presented to Bernard Smith edited A. Bradley and T. Smith (Melbourne, VIC: Oxford University Press, 1908),135. 92 Art, Love and Life: Ethel Carrick & E. Phillips Fox (Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Queensland, Australia, 2011), 17. 93 Hilda would have had a nother opportunity to view this canvas when it was show n at the 1910 Salon in Paris. 94 Zubans, E. Phillips Fox, 1865 1915 7. 95

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207 It is likely that Fox and Carrick contrib plein airism evidenced by her new found embrace of an impressionistic aesthetic, sensitivity to light, and employment of vibrant pig careers. Australian art curator Tony Ellwood, described the equality of From the time they married in Lo the two lived, worked and travelled side by side, equals in life and his support and admiration for her achievements, and an awaren ess of the struggles for greater independence of the women of her generation, were evidently crucial to their successful union. 96 As a respected teacher, Rix would have taken any advice and critique Fox offered seriously, and as a successful artist in her o wn right, Carrick would have served as a model for mimicry of Fox and Carrick would be significant in shaping her artistic maturation abroad, as it is likely the encouraging the young artist to venture outside Paris, first to the coastal fishing village of taples beginning in the summer of 1910 and later to Morocco in 1912. Becoming an Artist in taple s Before WWI, the seas becoming a favorite for American and other English speaking artists working in France. The Americans were joined by notable Australian artists including, E. Phillips Fox and his wife Ethel Carri ck, the celebrated painter Rupert Bunny, Marie Tuck, Arthur Baker Clack, Margaret 96 Art, Love and Life: Ethel Carrick & E. Phillips Fox (Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Queensland, Australia, 2011), 13.

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208 Preston, and Isobel (Iso) Rae, a former classmate of Elizabeth Rix at the Gallery School and a long standing figure in the art colony, first settling there in 1887. 97 taples, located in the northern coast of France in Pas de Calais, at the mouth of the Canche River, was an ideal alternative to Brittany, allowing artists to portray the local population in their picturesque rural costumes, as well as the variety of agrarian and co a stal topography available for landscape painters. Although several artists lived in the area year round, the taples colony swelled during the summer months when the Parisian ateliers closed. In addition to painters seeking picturesque subjects and inex pensive accommodations, wealthy tourists vacationed at the Le Touquet Paris size, coupled with the presence of so many wealthy visitors, made it an ideal location for the annual exhibitions of the new 98 The proximity to Paris, availability of cheap housing and models, local exhibition opportunities, and affluent patrons made taples the ideal site for Rix to set up her first studio and elevate her career. Upon h er arrival the artist expressed disappointment appearance, smell, and begging peasant children that followed the Rix wo men through the fishing village, yet it was not long before Hilda Rix came to think of taples as a home away fr om home and a site of rural refuge. The time she spent on the coast between the years 1910 and 1914 and the artistic exchanges that took place there would be the most influential of her young career. Unlike the crowded and competitive study in urban atel iers, the artistic community in 97 When most of the taples community fled during the German occupation of France, Iso Rae and Henry Tanner were among the few that remained and documented the transforma tion and new life of the village into a base for allied troops (American and AIF). Rae was not officially named as a war artists by AIF despite documenting her first hand experiences in Etaples during the war. Tanner also remained in Etaples serving in the American army. The images he created during this period are some of the only representations of African American service men, acknowledging and making visual their contributions, which were occluded by white American patriotic images. Jean Claude Lesage, Peintres Australiens Etaples (A.M.M.E editions, 2000), 18. 98 Pigot, Hilda Rix Nicholas: Her Life and Art, 18.

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209 taples was welcoming and collaborative. Pigot described the hospitable nature of the colony: and constructed her art according t 99 After exploring the village, Rix decided to rent a studio space that was situated directly off the town square. The property included a garden in which she posed her sitters, imitating the verdant backd 100 The market and women working and noise and life that drew her out of the studio and into the public square to sketch. There is such a hum and buzz of traffic going past my window as I write it is almost incredible that a little village like this could produce such noise, but it is market day, and that means that a long procession of country carts pass, driven by dear little rosy faced, snowy capped women. They are mostly donkey carts, laden with butter, eggs, green vegetables and great bunches of sweet smelling flowers that tell of the overflowing gardens. 101 During her studies in Paris and taples, Rix cultivated her interest in po rtraying types, painting strong singular female figures in a variety of ethnic and historical costumes. In taples, she established an ongoing engagement with the figure of the rural peasant and depiction of agrarian life that would persist throughout her different approaches in depicting the local population. The first encompassed lively plein air sketches made in color pencil, graphite, and charcoal that captured vendors, shoppers, and the locals socializing in the marketplace (Figure 4 13). The second mode featured local women as monumenta lized figures in oil paintings. 99 Ibid., 19. 100 Ibid. 101

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210 nd design studying with John Hassel in London and Thophile Alexandre Steinlen at the Acadmie de la Grande Chaumire in Paris. Her croquis lessons with Steinlen were especially beneficial in cultivating her ability to capture animated scenes and figures 102 Additionally, p rovided an important example for Rix 103 When Rix enrolled at the Grande Chaumire Thophile Alexandre Steinlen was already a significant contributor in the Montmartre avant garde, known for his illustration an d poster art. His work was often political in nature, focusing on the life of the lower and working classes in Paris issues, his pictures confronted some of the problem 104 In taking on rural subjects, Rix attempted to enter into an artistic discourse that enjoyed popularity beginning in the mid nineteenth century. With the establishment of the Barbizon School, rural art colonies in France became a fundamental element in both academic and avant garde practice. Artists and Salon audiences were attracted to the idealized otherness of non industrialized peasant life. The untouched purity of the rural landscape and biblical associations with the honest labor of agrarian life established by Millet and the Barbizon painters generations earlier, had since regressed into a superficial portrayal of peasant otherness made famous by 102 Ibid. 103 Pigot, Hilda Rix Nicholas, Her Life and Art, 16. 104 John Pigot of the traditional Salon system. Pigot, Hilda Rix Nicholas, Her Life and Art 16.

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211 Salon painters, including Jules Breton and William Adolphe Bouguereau (Figures 4 14). These beautiful and problematically available and sexualized peasant girls and young women pandered to the desires of bourgeois viewers, representing a comforting fiction of rural life, which was in conflict with the often desperate realities and ha rd labor peasants endured. These idealized a stal peasant communities had little to do with the reality of lived experiences or the character of indi viduals in taples or Brittany. The rural settings and working class subjects in taple narrative, romantic, and picturesque. She may have admired the hard work of the rural merchants she sketched in the taples market, but her descriptions of the village make it clear that she did not identify with them a s individuals or become interested in advocating for their social equality or liberation from economic oppression in the manner of Steinlen. As a bourgeois woman accustomed to the luxuries of city life in Melbourne and Paris, Rix likely did view th e peasan ts of taples as Other. imagery of taplean women resists the more exploitative aspects of male portrayals of rural peasants, her ambivalent positioning to these women often worked to reinscribe their otherness. In attempting to speak using the vi stereotypes of rural types, while also disrupting this language, Rix crafted imagery of the taples peasant woman that maintained their otherness as a means for her own bourgeois self affirmation while also undermining th e idealization and latent eroticism of male artist s peasant women. For her mimicry, Rix turned to the images made by her contemporaries in taples, demonstrating her interaction with Myron Barlow, an American painter, who was regarded as one of the lea der s of the artistic community.

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212 Work is one of the earliest canvases she created in taples (Figure 4 15 ). Drawing from the repertoire of rural type s established in the nineteenth century, the artist focused on the daily life and the munda ne do mestic labor assigned to women, however the sub ject, composition, and pastel palette of Work clearly mimic the idyllic peasant scenes of Myron Barlow. Scaling Fish (Figure 4 16) and Gathering Apples (Figure 4 17) are typical of ch he artfully arranged female sitters in quiet modest interiors. 105 The two peasants in Work create a pyramidal form that occupies the majority of the canvas. On the right, a woman stands while pouring a steaming brass kettle into a large basin below. A se cond bonneted figure on the left kneels by the basin leaning forward to retrieve dishes for washing. The women attend to their quotidian labor with a silent stoicism. The domestic setting is appropriately austere and convincing of a n taplean home consisti ng of a small table topped with a pitcher and basin against a white washed wall and utilitarian hanging mirror. ed these models attractively, yet made them less available than her male colleagues. The simplicity of their clothing and strength figures and instead underscores th eir active role in rural life and their contributions to the family and community. In titling the canvas Work Rix indicates what these taplean women represent to her, undermining the idealized portrayals of female peasants pausing from their productivity to pose suggestively with the instruments of their labor, gossip, or rest in the bountiful fields and 105 Jean Claude Lesage, Myron Barlow: Un peintre & son modle (1873 1937) (E nnetires en Weppes : Invenit, 2012), 67. As with Miller, Hilda may have also shared models with Barlow in taples. While Hilda may have figured composition and subject for Work have been Descharles from the 1930s Femme la pelote (woman winding yarn) and La Blanchisseuse (Laundress).

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213 appealing but eschew the availability and sense of possession suggested by male painters. As the title suggests, t he two interested in performing as objects of display and more invested in th e real action of communal work. As an alternative to the overtly aestheticized young peasant women preferred by male painters, Rix frequently focused her attention on the older women of the community describing them with vigorous realism. Her sketches and paintings of these matriarchs communicate their experience and strength in the unidealized rendering of their faces and hands hardened by a lifetime o contributions to the community, while simultaneously creating an image that would appeal to Salon goers by perpetuating the urban bourgeois romanticism, which Rix likely subscri bed to herself, that idealized the communion with nature peasants enjoyed without representing the ir actual struggles or poverty. market, in addition to oil paintings pose d in her studio and garden, demonstrate the refinement of design and composition skills, as well as a sureness and control of the oils allowing her brushwork to become looser and broken while retaining naturalism and legibility. She adopted an impressionis tic application of paint and became more sensitive to rendering the effects of sunlight. Two canvases, Grandmre (Figure 4 18) and A Mother of France (Figure 4 19), painted which resists the youthful, idealized, and potentially sexualized portrayals of rural women, while still contributing

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214 emphasized the character and presence of her sitters. The women are made statuesque through quarter cropping. This compositional strategy was appropriated figural compositi ons in Grandmre and A Mother of France are reminiscent of the Australian including Nasturtiums which frame their subjects in three quarter pose making them both s 12). More specifically, Grandmre (Figure 4 18) may be a direct imitation of Eighty Five Years a canvas Fox painted during his time in Brittany in 1891 106 (Figure 4 20) Similar to the Art Students his sympathetic portrayal of rural wisdom and age was exhibited in Melbourne during the late nineteenth century prov iding Rix the opportunity to view the work before Grandmre reveals Rix sk ill in mim icking a variety of influences i n this particular canvas, the dominant female figure and leafy abstracted backdrop Nasturtiums (Figure 4 12 ) with the intense realism and character conveyed in the elderly sitter for Eighty Five Year s (Figure 4 20). a confident and expressive application of paint to suggest the bright sun and clear sky of a summer afternoon in taples. Her broken brushwork enlivens th e surface of the canvas in 106 s his capacity for the sensitive portrayal of old E. Phillips Fox, 1865 1915 23.

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215 peasant painting replacing youth with experience and idealism with forceful realism. 107 taples between 1910 and 1914 allowed her to imitate and learn from the community of artists who made the co a stal village their home each summer. It was also within this community that the artist met the American painter Henry Ossawa Tanner, the president of the newly formed Socit Artistique de Picardie In her European journal, Rix first makes reference to Tanner to descri be how admirers would gather around the leader of the art colony while he and others worked i prevent him attending with fervour to the beautiful pee a picture of Frans Hals, and has a quite beauty [sic] manner there are the people who [?] surround us. There is quite a large colony of artist s at the Htel Loos and at various studios and cottages throughout the village of Tr pied nearby. 108 Although Rix would make only several direct references to the esteemed painter in her writings, Henry Tanner would become extraordinarily influential to her career as he made the rs, C arrick and Fox, a reality 107 A postcard image, similar to Grandmre practice. 108 Hilda Rix Nicholas, European journal, 1910. Papers of Hilda R ix Nicholas, MS 9817, National Library of Australia.

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216 Figure 4 1 Hilda Rix Nicholas, Bringing in the Sheep, ca. 1936. Oil on canvas, Bega Valley Art and Craft Regional Gallery, Bega, NSW. Figure 4 2 Aby Altson, Flood Sufferings 1890. Oil on canvas, 110 x 153.5 cm. Natio nal Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne VIC

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217 Figure 4 3 Tom Roberts, 1886. Oil on canvas, 46 x 60.9 cm. National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne VIC Figure 4 4 Jane Sutherland, Two Figures in a Field (The Mushroom Gatherers), ca. 1895. Oil on canvas, 41.8 x 99.3 cm ., National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, VIC.

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218 Figure 4 5 Hilda Rix Nicholas, Sketchbook ca. 1903 1909, the Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS 9817, Series 18, National Lib rary of Australia, Canb erra, ACT Figure 4 6 Hilda Rix Nicholas, Sketchbook ca. 1903 1909, the Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS 9817, Series 18, National Lib rary of Australia, Canberra, ACT

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219 Figure 4 7 Hilda Rix Nicholas, Travel Journal ca. 1907 the Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS 9817, Series 10, National Lib rary of Australia, Canberra, ACT Figure 4 8 Richard Miller, The Necklace 1909. Oil on canvas, Private Collection.

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220 Figure 4 9 Hilda Rix Nicholas, The Pink Scarf 1913. Oil on canvas, 80.5 x 65.0 cm. Art Gallery of South Australia, A delaide, SA. Figure 4 10 Richard Miller, Study (possibly for the Necklace) n.d.

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221 Figure 4 11 Emmanuel Phillips Fox Art students, 1895. Oil on canvas 182.9 x 114.3 cm. Art Gall ery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW. Figure 4 12 Emmanuel Phillips Fox Nasturtiums, ca. 1912. Oil on canvas, 91.3 x 71.3 cm. Private Collection, Melbourne, VIC.

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222 Figure 4 13 Hilda Rix Nicholas, Fruit Market, Etaples I ca. 1901. Graphite pastel, coloured pencil on paper, 37.5 x 27.8 cm ., Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW. Figure 4 14 William Adolphe Bouguereau, The Broken Pitcher, 1891. Oil on canvas, 85.5 x 133 cm. Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.

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223 Figure 4 15 Hi lda Rix Nicholas, Work, 1911. Oil on canvas, 162 x 130.5 cm. Orica Art Collection Melbourne, VIC. Figure 4 16 Myron Barlow, Scaling Fish n.d., Oil on canvas, Private Collection.

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224 Figure 4 17 Myron Barlow, Gathering Apples n.d. oil on canv as. 100.33 x 101.60 cm. Figure 4 18 Hilda Rix Nicholas, Grandmre 1914. Oil on canvas, 80.9 x 64.1 cm Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney NSW

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225 Figure 4 19 Hilda Rix Nicholas, Mother of France, 1914. Oil on canvas, 88.5 cm x 76.5 cm. Au stralian War Memorial Collection, Canberra ACT Figure 4 20 Emmanuel Phillips Fox, Eighty Five Years 1891. Oil on canvas, 35.4 x 29.3 cm Art Gall ery of South Australia, Adelaide, SA

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226 CHAPTER 5 ESCAPE AND TRANSCENDENCE IN THE ORIENT M y effort h as been not only to put the Biblical i ncident in the original setting, but at the and which ever remains the same. While giving truth of detail not to lose sight of more important matters by this I mean that of color and design should be as carefully thought out as if the subjects had only these qualities. Henry O. Tanner describing the necessity of traveling to the Orient New York Times (Jan. 29, 1924 ) The above the East, this quote reveals that in reflecting on his long career and engagement with bi blical Orientalism, Tanner remained ambivalent in his desire for the Orient to be impossibly original and authentic, but also uni fying, timeless, and universal. He study, and create Orientalist imagery is arguably the most rev consciousness that was a consequence of his determination to work and find recognition in a world designed to diverse approache s to Orientalism, beginning in 1897 with his first trip to Palestine to his last expedition to Morocco in 1912, are nary thinking in what the East could offer to his art a t various stages of his career. Over this period experience and direct study of the people and places of the Holy Land for biblical religious c ontent to a progressive modernist aesthetic that embraced abstraction and the expressive power and mysticism within a

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227 timeless, placeless Orient. The stylistic arc of Tann s marked by tension and the conflicting desires to emulate and resist a culture that continued to marginaliz e women and people of color. This inconsistency resulted in a dynamic and dialectic push and pull, between an acceptance and resistance to the tradi ambivalent positioning within these discourses. llowed him to participate in but continued to situate him at the margins of white culture. While resisti ng the racial binary that othered this work, Tanner eagerly capitalized on his position in the Oriental/Occidental, Colonized/Colonizer system. Within the con text of colonialism, his status as a western man in and offered him a sense of freedom and authority when working abroad highlight the visual and ideological contradictions and paradoxes at work in his Orientalism, which I con sider to be the latent traces of his own struggles in negotiating Belle poq ue cultural and social binaries, a student in Philadelphia. I argue that Tanner viewed Orientalism a st rategy that would enable him to negotiate a place for himself and his art through the adoption and manipulation of an artistic discourse that was valued by white culture. His strategy centered on the ambivalent desires of unsettling Euro American racial an d gender hierarchies, while also reinforcing the Oriental/Occidental binary that privileged his access to and portrayal of the East, offering him a sense of authority, which transcended the racial otherness assigned to him in the West.

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2 28 Hybridity in the Ho ly Land Resurrection of Lazarus (Figure 2 11), his American patrons, Rodman Wanamaker and Robert Ogden, were eager to provide the artist with the experience and opportunities that would reinforce their investment i n h is ability to generate salable religious art similar The Life of Christ series. As a result, Tanner for his religious paintings, the first in 1897 and again in 1898, both sponsored by his American with the East, inspiring The Annunciation (Figure 3 5) and Nicodemus Visiting Jesus (Figur e 5 1). artist would have been drawn to Jerusalem. His desire to visit and experience the birthplace of Christianity also participated in the larger context of religious revivals occurring in Europe and America during the late nineteenth century. Art historian Alan Braddock notes that the Belle facilitate a re imagination or re en actment of biblical narratives that merged the past with the present. 1 ethnographic and archeological variety of Orientalism, made popular by figures like Jean Lon Grme and Ludwig Deutsch, in which the art hand experience in the East. The artist as anthropologist studied the people, landscape, and archaeology, granting their Orientalism a degree of scientific authority. 1 specifics of the Holy Land its landscape, culture, and inhabitants situated his work within the broad and diverse

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229 In addition to rel demonstrated the de gree to which he was acculturated by the dominant practices of Belle poque art. As a stud ent of the renowned Orientalist Benjamin Constant, Tanner recognized the power and p rivilege this genre the academic realism and exotic travels of his white mentor and colleagues, exposes the unresolved desires and his psychological struggle with double conscious ness that compelled him to mimic the dominan t practices, themes, and aesthetics of Belle poque art in order to be embraced by, and circulate within these dominant discourses. relationship with Orientalism was the fact that his travel to the Holy Land situate d him outside the geographical and conceptual binaries that governed Euro American identity, allowing him to negotiate his status by leveraging his western and gendered privilege. 2 While Tanner found far more liberty to pursue a professional artistic caree in Egypt and Palestine offered him a sense of freedom and agency that was unthinkable when compared to his e xperience as a struggling art student in America. Tanner Africa and the Middle East was a milestone as it made him the first professional black artist to make this voyage. 3 His participation in Orientalism indicates that he was complicit in exercising 2 description of the Holy Land also contributes to Orientalist rhetoric AME Church Review Jerusalem on foot, or riding a thin, wirey [sic] Arab horse through narrow str eets, in and out among a jostling, motely, turbaned burnoosed crowd passed crowded cafes filled with wild men from beyond the Jordan playing checkers, or a kind of backgammon, each group surrounded by stately Arabs lazily smoking their chibouk through the Bazaars where others more actively engaged are buying, selling, or disputing with money changers past shops with their picturesque occupants, both Jew and Arab past a ragged and, perchance, sore footed sentinel at St. AME Church Review 15 (January 1908): 359. 3

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230 colonial viewing rights over the people, cu s toms, and landscape of the East; however, his art was far from an endorsement of colonialism or its policies. during which time he was accompanied by Sandor Landeau, a colleague from the Acadmie Julian. 4 Describing his second experience i n the Holy Land, Tanner stated: We spent six months painting around Jerusalem and the Dead Sea and this gave me an insight into the country and the character of the people that my shor ter visit had only whetted my appetite for. It was here that I made a study for the Mount of Temptation from which I afterward painted Moses and the Burning Bush, I also commenced a picture, The Scapegoat which still languishes in a dark closet of unfinish ed efforts. 5 document and acquire a command over the people and landscape, which he and Salon audiences, critics, and patrons had come to equate with the biblical past. T he result of his efforts in Palestine was the canvas Nicodemus Visiting Jesus (Figure 5 1) exhibited in the 1899 Paris Salon and later archaeological details of Benjamin Consta confirming its connection to, and creation within the Holy Land. The biblical episode Tanner portrayed is uni que, only appearing in the g ospel of John (3:1 21). In his narrative, John described the encounter between Jesus and Nicodemus, a well respected Pharisee ruler. Nicodemus came to Jesus at night to ask him about rebirth and how one could enter the kingdom o investment in the portrayal of spiritual didactic themes. The gospel text does not describe where 4 Mosby, Henry Ossawa Tanner 149. 5 Ackerman, American Orientalists 199 200.

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231 nig his Resurrection of Lazarus (Figure 2 the open sky, including the local topography and architecture o exotic tropes. At least three of Benjamin canvases: Evening on the Terrace Morocco (two versions including a grap hite drawing and oil on canvas) (Figure 5 2) Arabian Nights (Figure 5 3) On the Terrace set his imaginative tableau and exotic figures on a rooftop, offering his western audience a romanticized view of the Oriental topography and life of leisured luxury. In his Nicodemus Visiting Jesus Tanner mocked the listlessness of Benjamin by replacing th e lounging odalisques with a serious encounter between a holy teacher and his attentive student seeking spiritual guidance. 6 The nearly square canvas centers on the figure Christ, who sits facing the viewer on the ledge of a rooftop, overlooking the blue night sky and the sleepy city of Jerusalem below. Seated across from Jesus, in profile to the viewer, Nicodemus is presented as a venerable eastern type. Tanner envisioned Nicodemus as a wizened, but eager, and attentive old man, with a long flowing white beard, dressed in garments typical of Middle Eastern men. The nocturnal scene is composed of blues and greens with darker hues of grey and brown reserved for the rendering of in palette from 6 Dewey Mosby ci 1492) Saint Jerome and Gerolamo Amadi n 1897. Mosby, Across Continents and Cultures 48.

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232 the dark protective shades of warm black and browns, that worked to ambivalently obscure and reveal, to a more mysterious ethereal application of blues and greens, which becomes a signature of his later work. Scholars have interpreted Tann green nocturnal and golden brown dimly lit interior religious scenes as symbolic of the practices of African American Christians during slavery. Slaves were barred from reading the Bible or holding form al church services forcing worship ers to organize clandestine meetings under the protective cover and darkness of strategies the oppressed created to worship Christ. 7 This suggestion is convinc ing when one correcting Belle poque inequalities. heart and the orange glow of the mysteriously illuminated staircase in the bottom right of the composition provides his audience access to, and absorpti on into the painting, just how the placement of the grave in The Resurrection of Lazarus (Figure 2 11) invites viewers to participate in the narrative. In keeping incorporated yellow orange and white light sparingly within the otherwise dark canvas to of light may have been inspired directly from the text, which makes reference to the purpose of light in the world: T his is t he verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the 7 Mosby, Henry Ossawa Tanner 168 169.

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233 light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by th e truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God. 8 Nicodemus Visiting Jesus corresponds with the mimicked academic realism he became proficient in during his tim e at PAFA and the Acadmie Julian. However, instead of employing realism as a means to describe a heterogeneous cast of Others, as he did in The Resurrection of Lazarus Tanner introduced a remarkably unique image of Jesus as a dark skinned, ambiguously ra compared to the innumerable historical portrayals of Christ as a white European man, including James Tissot at the time was considered radically modern in its ethnographic accuracy (Figure 2 14). As in his previous work, Tanner made a point to represent race. His various approaches in The Banjo Lesso n The Thankful Poor and The Resurrection of Lazarus mimic and playfully re presenting race and gender through the inclusion of women and non white figures in his biblical paintings, in an attempt to disrupt the hierarchal binary systems of racial classification, the artist presented a racially un fixed image of Christ and called on his stud y in Palestine in the rendering of the icate his image. Tanner utilized his privilege to study and document the East to create an Orientalist image that critiqued and sought to correct the inequities of Belle po que society throu gh the camouflage of an exotic, historic and religious 8 John 3:19 21.

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234 East, a strategy that reiterates assessment of Orientalism as a 9 Offering an innovative answer to ack, 10 By creating a hybrid that could be achieved through a common investment in Chr t utopian Christian vision of a world community to which he thought the United States ought to ersality 11 12 In his letter to Tietjens, it is clear that Tanner did not consider himself to be singularly of African or European lineage. As such, he developed a visual corrective that stressed the impossibility of racial purity and offered an image of hybridity that reflected his own mixed 9 Colonial Fantasies 1. 10 a world The Outlook vol .64, no. 1 4 (April 7, 1900): 793. 11 12 Saxon men and which has done in the past effective and distinguished work in the U.S. does this n ot count for anything? Does the or 1/8 of though it has caused me at times a life of great humiliation and sorrow. [But] that it is the sourc e of all my talents (if letter to Eunice Tietjens, dated May 25, 1914, Henry Ossawa Tanner papers, 1860s 1978, bulk 1890 1937. AAA, Smithsoni an Institute.

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235 d figure of Jesus expressed the reality of interracial relationships, policed at the time through miscegenation laws which was especially personal as it pertained to his own racial identity and marriage to a white woman The dark complexion of Christ in communicated stressing the inter connectedness and hybridity of humanity In addition to visualizing his hip to the ideals espoused by W.E.B Du Bois. In the Souls of Black Folks I deal of human brotherhood, gained through the unifying ideal of Race; the ideal of fostering and developing the traits and talents of Negros, not in opposition to or contempt for other races, but rather in large conformity to the greater ideals of the Amer ican Republic, in order that some day on American soil two world races may give each to each those characteristics both so sadly lack. 13 assertion that as cultures and peopl es overlap in the process of hybridity within a Third Space, interstitial passage between fixed identifications opens up the possibility of a cultural 14 Accord ing to Nicodemus Visiting Jesus is itself the result of hybridity. The canvas is an object of cultural expression produced geographically and conceptually in a Thir d Space between Orient/Occident or Palestine/Paris. Bhabha argues i t is within the Third Space that cultures come into contact and overlap creating new forms of trans cultural hybridity. 15 13 Du Bois, The Souls of Black Folk 7. 14 Bhabha, Location of Culture 4. 15 Ibid., 53 56.

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236 gender classifications. Bhabha argues: I t is only when we understand that all cultural statements and systems are constructed in this contradictory and ambivalent space of enunciation, that we begin to understand why hierarchal claim s to the inherent originality or cultures are unten able, even before we resort to empirical historical instances that demonstrate their hybridity. 16 communicate the unifying power of Christianity and the complexity of Belle poque racial from the literal bodily representation of diverse and mixed raced figures to a more figurative and symbolic approach that rendered holy individuals ambig uous and open to interpretation through a manipulatio n of formal aesthetic elements. Aesthetic Experimentation and Escapism in the Orient first decade of the twentieth century, the artist became more open to the aesthetics and philosophy of avant garde movements, such as Symbolism and Expressionism 17 It was during this time the painter made an aesthetic turn, shifting from the warm, dark palette that gained him notoriet y with late nineteenth century Salon audiences and critics, to an increased abstraction of his figures and an emphasis on cool tonal harmonies of vi olet, blue, and greens referred to as the mic realism, which allowed him to emphasize the unidealized, but noble, humanit y of biblical women evidenced in his 16 Ibid., 54 55. 17 Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit, edi ted by Anna Marley, 117 126 (LA: University of California Press, 2102), 124 125.

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237 Marian canvases, to a retreat from naturalism, in which he depicted biblical figures through radically simplified mean s of expressive form a nd color. It is my argument that Tanner made a conscious decision to increasingly abstract his figures as a pictorial strategy to re present a world that transcended societal and representative categories of race, gender, and class. allowed him to evade the prevailing stylistic categorizations and affiliations of fine art. While maintaining his connection to academic and narrative figural art, he attempted to bridge his academicism with a more progressive modernist privileging of form and color that resulted in a hybridity of practice and aesthetics. spiritual possibilities of color, form, and symbols to communicate beyond the visual should squarely situate him in dialogue with the late ni neteenth century Symbolist movement, in addition to early twentieth century m odernists, including Wassily Kandinsky speak universally. 18 N o major study of has identified Tanner with this moveme nt, with the exception of a passing influence at P ont Aven. Le Paul reported that 19 Tanner scholars, 18 criteria. Facos identifies two factors needed to qualify work as Sym bolist: authorial intention and aesthetic qualities. art is characterized by (1) an Michelle Facos, Symbolist Art in Context, (LA: University of California Press, 2009), 1. 19 Le Paul and Le Paul, Gauguin and the Impressionists, 98, fn 53. In my research I have not found Tanner represented in any major study of Symbolism or American Tonalism despite creating landscapes during the turn of the century that evoke many Tonalist ideals. Tanner does not appear i n the 1982 traveling exhibition Tonalism: an American Experience organized by the Grand Centra l Art Gallerie s of New York. Catalog edited by William H. Gerdts, Diana Dimondica Sweet, Robert R. Preato, Tonalism: an American Experience NY: Grand Central Art Galleries Art Education Association, 1982. In the 1972 catalog to the Tonalist exhibition, The Color of Moo d: American Tonalism 1880 1910, Wanda Corn describes the movement interpreting very specific themes in limited color scales and employing delicate effects of light to create vague, suggestive moods. It does n ot identify a unified and consciously promoted group movement of painters, but rather The Color of Mood: American Tonalism

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238 tendencies, but also the challenges in attempting to assign him to a particular movement or style. between movements and classifications: Historians of American art have been too preoccupied with Tanner as evidence of of his career into the twentieth century and the reluctance of s cholars to integrate him into his time, choosing instead to try to sweep him back into the nineteenth century or, conversely, uncritically make him an available precursor to Harlem doomed in early modernist culture to be a relic. 20 garde academic hybrid sensibilities in his description of the painter for Cosmopolitan 21 links to realism and academic art should not disqualify him from being considered a Symbolist, a s Gustave Moreau and Puvis de Chavannes, both prominent academicians, have long been recognized for their contributions to this movement. 22 Yet, as he rejected his categorization as a nct and highly personal aesthetic idiom was due in part to his desire to defy any limiting classifications of his art. As a student in the 1890s, Tanner made connections with well known artists of the Symbolist Nabi movement. He spent the summer of 1891 in Pont Aven and 1892 in Concarneau, 1880 1910 (San Francisco: M. H. De Young Memorial Museum and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, 1972) 4. 20 journalists attempted to link it with larger stylistic movements of the late nineteenth cen highly personal aesthetic employed a variety of mainstream styles that were popular during the nineteenth and early twentieth century. 21 Cosmopolitan 29, no 1 (May 1900), 19. 22 126.

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239 Brittany where Paul Gauguin was already regarded as a leading figure of Symbolism and Synthesis aesthetic philosophies. 23 In Brittany, Tanner conversed and exchanged ideas with members of this avant garde movement whom he became acquainted while at the Acadmie Julian. Moreover, in his memoirs, the painter Gustave Loiseau suggested that Tanner was a and mystical elements of Symboli 24 Salome (Figure 3 18), often regarded as an anomaly in his oeuvre, reveals that as early as 1900, Tanner explored a variety of styles and manipulated formal elements for expressive effect. Because the artist employed his wife as the model for Salome the painting remained deeply personal to Tanner. He kept the canvas with him in the studio, but declined to exhibit it publicly until 1924. 25 Another reason Tanner may have had reservations about 23 Before returning to America for financial respite and recovery from typhoid fever in 1893, it is also likely that Tanner spent the early part of th Kathleen James, Sylvia Yount, Jane Tippet, and Jeffrey Richmond Moll in Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit, edited by Anna Marley, 284 and Mosby, Henry Ossawa Tanner 201 and 2 10. During his enrollment in the Acadmie Julian, Tanner was introduced to Gustave Loiseau, Armand Sguin, and Paul Srusier, who would go on to establish the Nabi movement. Dewey Mosey pointed to a portrait of Tanner painted by Sguin, which was exhibited ideas. Dewey Mosby, Henry Ossawa Tanner 93. 24 Le Paul and Le Paul, Gauguin and the Impressionists, fn 53. It is unlikely that Tanner would have bee n robes, and devised secre t ceremonies. To varying degrees they infused their paintings with ideas drawn from Buddhism, Catholicism, Judaism, Neoplatonism, and Theosophy, with the intent of manifesting hidden truths recognition of which would, they hoped, improve the condition of h Symbolist Art in Context, 173. 25 In recent years the intervention of conservators has become necessary due to webbed cracking in the thickly painted and textured surface of this work. When specialists at the SAAM removed Salome from its st retcher, they discovered another painting inside used to support the lining. The Fishermen at Sea dated to 1913 was a canvas Tanner chose to sacrifice in order to support his Salome despite declining to exhibit the nude publically. I would like to thank Am Salome. Additionally, on the back of Salome the conservationists discovered the abandoned painting Moses and the Burning Bush. See Brian Baade, Amber Kerr Allison and Jennife Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit edited Anna O. Marley, 157 166. (LA: University of California Press, 2012). While the reuse of canvas was not uncommon amo ng artists, I propose that the Moses and the Burning Bush on the verso of Salome pa

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240 displaying Salome was that when compared to his traditional Salon paintings, it was radically modern in its attention to the materiality of paint, expressive color and light, and the abstracted Salome represented a departure from the mann er of The Resurrection of Lazarus (Figure 2 11), The Annunciation (Figure 3 5) and the domestic biblical canvases Tanner was recognized for by the Socit des Artistes Franais and its conservative patrons. green composition is illustrated in the eerie electric frigidity of Salom e. Unlike anything Tanner painted before, the work suggests his openness to avant gardism in Paris, as Salome Period. More specific to his interest in religious art, Tanner began to manipulate color to encourage spiritual and psychological contemplation, a preoccupation he shared with the Russian expatriate Wassily Kandinsky. Kandinsky claimed that color had a psychic effect on the viewer 26 Kandinsky went on to define the spiritual significance of th e color blue in his 1911 Concerning the Spiritual in Art. The power of profound meaning is foun d in blue, and first in its physical movements (1) of retreat from the spectator, (2) of turning in upon its own center. The inclination of blue to depth is so strong that its inner appeal is strong when its shade is deeper. Blue is the typical heavenly co lor. The ultimate feeling it creates is one of rest. 27 Tanner had cause to be w studio in the early 1900s, one of his earliest patrons, Robert Ogden wrote to Booker T. he initiated during this trip. I believ 26 Wassily Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art translated by Michael Sadler and Adrian Glew (Boston: MFA Publications, 2006), 49. 27 Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art 76.

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241 Washington: s to help him. I fear that, in the development of his art, difficulties have arisen that will operate against the sale of his recent work. I have seen a half dozen of his pictures which are very mysterious in spirit, very abstruse in art, full of delicate sensitivity, and altogether too transcendental for popular appreciation. 28 It seems that during the first decade of the twentieth century Tanner continued to create academically styled biblical paintings, which staged gospel narratives in a literal, illust rative manner for the Salon while privately dabbling with abstraction, the expressive power of color and light to increasingly focus on the materiality of his medium through the mixing of oil, tempera, and glazes. However, by the end of the decade, he was no longer willing to inhibit his modernist impulses and artistic goals to appease conse rvative patrons. The transformation to a modernist idiom indicates that Tanner was in a place in his career where he felt confident enough to follow his artistic goals and aesthetic desires against the judgment of his early benefactors. This was a time of great happiness, as well as personal and professional security for the artist. In 1908, Tanner purchased property in Trpied, which he would transform into a personal s 29 In addition to emerging as the leader 28 Mathews also suggested that the Chamber Music or The Cello Lesson. Mathews stated: in a picture painted before he left Paris to join Athe rton Curtis at Mount Kisco. In style and technique it is curiously unlike any that he painted before or after. When it was shown at the Salon of 1902 it no doubt caused spirited conversation among the Salon habitus who had come to think of Tanner in terms Henry Ossawa Tanner, American Artist 127 128. The Cello Lesson was not received well by the Salon critics, which may have inhibited Tanner from p ublicly exhibiting his more progressive experimentations with formal elements unt il later that decade. Until recently, it was believed that this canvas was lost or destroyed. In an ironic twist of fate, through the implementation of the latest imaging and scanning methods, the curators at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the Mus The Disciples at Emmaus Unlike the critically disappointing Cello Lesson The Disciples at Emmaus was awarded a silver medal and purchased by the state allowing bo th the hidden and visible paintings an honored place Modern Spirit, 34 and Baade, Kerr 29 Mathews, Henry Ossawa Tanner: Am erican Artist 124.

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242 of the art colony and finding a communion of like minded artists in taples, Tanner also benefited from the emotional and financial support of Atherton and Ingeborg Curtis. Atherton arranged a system of patronage with Tanner in an effort t o relieve him, insofar as it was within 30 To advance his career and artistic goals, as he did a decade earlier, Tanner once again, urning to the Holy Land as a strategy to authenticate his biblical scenes through a studied realism of the local population and t he inclusion of exotic artifacts, Tanner set his sights on North Africa possibly because French controlled Algeria, Tunisia, and Morocco were artistic destinations that were frequented by both academic and avant garde artists. Unlike his earlier expedition s to the Holy Land, which were inscribed within the discourse s of pilgrimage and archaeology during the early twentieth century, North Africa was a desirable and accessible destination for western tourists, authors, and artists all seeking to partake in t he exotic. At this point in his career, an escape from western conventions and cons ervative artistic expectations T he promise of freedom and escape Tanner hoped to secure in North Afric a, was itself an Orientalist trope; yet the artist invested in Algeria and Morocco as a real and imagined space in which he could shed his academic inhibitions by experimenting with and embracing a modernist aesthetic. Imaging/Imagining North Africa in 1912 followed that of his mentor, Jean Joseph Benjamin Constant, who accompanied the French ambassador on a diplomatic mission, allowing 30 According to Mathews, shortly after the Curtises returned to Paris in 1905, an arrangement was made between as to paint for him a pi cture or feasible as far as Atherton was concerned since he had only In addition to this monthly stipend, the Curtises ensured that Jesse Tanner received the best education by generously paying his tuition at the Hillcrest School in England and later at Cambridge University, Mathews, Henry Ossawa Tanner: American Artist 123.

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243 him to live and work in Tangier between 1872 and 1874. Four decades later, Tanner set out for North Africa seeking t o partake in the freedom and privilege his predecessor enjoyed, using this freedom to break wi th his emulative academic past. Long before Henry Tanner embarked for North Africa, western artists exercised discursive power over t he East by fabricating impres sions and interpretations of the people, customs, and landscape they both encountered and imagined. As Hln Gill, author of The Language of French Orientalist Painting E Orientalists were, in fact, in the busine 31 created real geogra phic sites of interest that western artists could travel to and document, but that which strong desires erotic, sadistic, or both could be projected with impunit 32 century biblical Orienta l ism adhered to the realism acculturated through his academic education and his travel to Palestine and Egypt as a means to authenticate his imagery, situating hi s early encounters with the East within the first category of Orientalism identified by Nochlin Between February and March of 1908, the artist traveled to and studied in Algeria. 33 exotic East for western audiences with ethnographic exactitude, as 31 Hln e Gill, The Language of French Orientalist Painting ( Lewist on, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2003), 109. 32 33 Tif, a foundation estab lished by the Algerian governor Cl estin Jonnart in 1907, for French artists to work in the traditions. Earlier trips had taken him to Egypt and Palestine, but the western coast of North Africa had been Henry Ossawa Tanner 200.

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244 was the aim of academic Orientalists, including Grme, Eugne Fromentin, Ludwig Deutsch, David Roberts, and John Frederick Lewis among others (Figure 5 4). Rather, Tan vision of t he Orient eschewed detail and specificity in favor of ambiguity, abstraction, and expressive color and light (Figure 5 5). Through the sense of freedom he acquired in North Africa, the artist fabricated an image of the Orient that fulfilled his desires and fantasies aligning his efforts with what Nochlin identi 34 s on articulat ing difference, rather, the fantasy of his Orient was unity and universalism. Far from projecting erotic and sadistic desires, as Nochlin suggested, by bridging academic and modernist aesthetic princi ples, Tanner called upon the power of biblical symbols and archetypes, as well as the belief that formal elements, including color harmonies and abstraction, had the power to communicate universally, inspiring spiritual reflecti on. While today the concept of universality is discredited as a homogenizing Eurocentric a 1924 in terview in the New York Times. When asked to describe his biblical Orientalism and which ever remains the same. 35 his spiritual 34 Said, Orientalism, 2. 35

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245 upbringing, but also demonstrates his connection to the m odernist aesthetic philosophy of the e arly twentieth century. recognize that the artist used his autho rity, as a western man, to transform the East into a homogenized, timeless and placeless, site mimicking a colonial discourse that was rooted in gen uine in t heir humanistic intent the ambiv alence created between emulating and resisting and selectively adopting some, while rejecting other Orientalist tropes, ultimately undermined both e mocked, are used to examine the fruits of that same patriar chy? It means that only the most narrow 36 while also communicating his desire f or unity, was the homogenization of titles and content of several paintings that were created during, or inspired by, his time in Algeria suggest that these images represent Morocco, although the artist did not travel there until 1912 with Hilda Rix. These paintings make assign Orientalism problematic An example of a canvas that was initiated before his time in Morocco, but one that represents architecture specific to Tangier, is the Flight into Egypt: Palais de Justice, Tangier (F igure 5 6). 36 Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde (Berkley, CA: Cross ing Press, 2007), 111.

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246 Drawing from his academic training and previous working methods, Dewy Mosby known and picturesque sights, purchased while the artist was in Algeria (Figure 5 7). Mosby claimed that Flight into Egypt ] are located in the Moroccan summer capital of Tangier, no firm evidence places Tanner in Morocco at this time, and he most likely did not base his rendition on first hand knowledge of 37 It is likely that Tanner employed photographs from Morocco and synthesized these images with the exotic architecture and landscape he encountered in Algeria. 38 doption of photography as a compositional aid was an established method utilized by academic realist painters, foremost of which was the Orientalists Jean Lon Grme. The Flight to Egypt employed commercial postcards as a source of information, which Tann architectural motifs to squarely situate this biblical narrative within an Orientalist discourse. Although Tanner utilized the academic strategy of photography as an aide mmoire The Flight to Egypt obsessive verisimilitude and overwhelm ing exotic information presented 37 This canvas has been variously dated to 1908, 1910, and 1912. Mosby cited the cataloged list of works displayed 1910 S alon exhibition in Paris, and an October show at the Art Institute of Chicago of the same year, all of which Morocco in 1912. This is problem atized by the fact that Tanner created multiple images of this narrative. Additionally, Dewey noted that the Flight into Egypt shares stylistic affinities with Entrance to the Customs House at Tangier, which was exhibited in Chicago, February of 1911 under the title Morocco Dewey Mosby, Henry Ossawa Tanner, n James, Sylvia Yount, Jane Tippet, and Jeffrey Richmond Moll in Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit, edited by Anna Marley, 284 and Mosby, Henry Ossawa Tanner 201 and 210. 38 Mosby also identifies Entrance to the Customs House, Tangiers (1908) as borrowin g its composition from Entrance to the Customs House, Tangier duplicates, with very little artistic license, the composition of the photographic reproduction of the site used in Enciclopedia Universa l Illustrada The two conversing figures in the middle ground of the photograph are mirrored in the Across Continents and Cultures 58.

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247 for curious western audiences. landscape is telling, as it illustrates his authority to exercise artistic license in fabricating an in North Africa and the Middle East and replaced these with a homogenized ima ge of a timeless century Orientalism revealed that these images were structured around a series of absences. The Flight from Egypt is absent of time and place. Although the painting claims to represent a specific site in Tangier, it was conceived of in Algeria and likely finished in France. Tanner represented an episode from biblical antiquity, but incorporated modern Islamic architecture and Maghrebian styled figures to do so. Nochlin hese absences are so conspicuous that, once we become aware of them, they Oriental world is a world without change, a world of timeless, atemporal customs and rituals, 39 to reinforce Orientalist discourse, the artist viewed the erasure of difference through the lens of 40 39 40

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248 discussion of cultural difference and authority may elucidate in part why Tanner adop ted the Orient as site of cultural difference t o express his artistic freedom. The enunciation of cultural difference problematizes the binary division of past and present, tradition and modernity, at the level of cultural representation and its authoritat ive address. It is the problem of how, in signifying the present, something comes to be repeated, relocated and translated in the name of tradition, in the guise of a pastness that is not necessarily a faithful sign of historical memory but as a strategy o f representing authority in terms of the artifice and the archaic. 41 site of spiritual contemplation is certainly problematic in the postcolonial present, but it is al so illuminating of how Tanner interpreted and attempted to enact the aesthetic and philosophic princip les of early twentieth century m odernism and the concept of universalism. Flight into Egypt: Palais de Justice, Tangier (Figure 5 6) is a modern and innovative, re employed the exotic backdrop of Tangier to stand in for, or si gnify, Egypt to his western audience. The dark, loosely rendered figures of the holy family, are silhouetted against the white washed architecture of the Palais de Justice. The white reflective surface of the architecture is woven into a harmony of thick w et into wet blue, green, and violet pigments that reflects the cool glow of the moonlit sky above. The numerous layers of pigment and glazes create a heavily factured, almost chalk like, surface that vibrates with an unexplained luminosity. 42 41 Bhabha, The Location of Culture 51 52. 42 painting methods. Earlier works under the academic influence of Constant and Laurens adhere to the direct, wet into wet method of applying oils, while his mature works are built up from multiple layers of glazes to build up the surface and in some cases scrap off sections. Kerr advised that these later compositions, created through the indirect method of multiple g lazes, include many more layers than one would expect (in some cases up to nineteen different

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249 inter locking brushwork of cool hues unifies the composition and infuses the canvas with an ethereal light that invites spiritual introspection. The goal was not to capture or recreate the natural reflection of light in the impressionist manner; rather, his port rayal of light and color is employing both a direct and indirect technique, which involved numerous layering of glazes and mixing of oil, tempera, and animal glues 43 The importance of technique and contemplation of spiritual exercise in itself. Sections of the canvas are worked up and scrapped down in a manner that grants the painti ng a secondary three dimensional even sculptural quality (Figure 5 8). The artist outlined the figures of Mary and Joseph in paint before building them up with a loaded brush of dark blue pigments. The traced outline encases the holy family in an abstract ed halo, while the thick daubs of paint convey their physicality and presence (Figure 5 9). Although they are painted in a manner that communicates significance and materiality, Mary, Joseph, and the baby Jesus are ren dered as simplified archetypes. Tanner abstracted the figures of the holy family down to the bare essentials of Christian iconography: a blue veiled woman, donkey, and a concealed infant, led by a male figure. ender the principle characters of this narrative into vague, amorphous figures when compared to the genre scen es he painted a decade earlier. Additionally, the artist turns away from traditional bru shwork and begins to employ a variety of non standard tools to apply and manipu late or even sculpt his medium. 43 Baade, Kerr 164.

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250 The Flight into Egypt philosophy, which advocated for the freedom to express ideas and emotions through imagery that itself as a counterpoint to the hermetically sealed photographic canv ases in order, not to convey information, but rather non visual spiritual truths (Figure 5 4) le sympathy for this figure by 44 Clara MacChesney, an artist and journalist for the journal International Studio visited exhibition. MacChesney reported that he had been experimenting with pigments and glazes for the past two years. 45 His present style is much changed. Not only has he a greater breadth of vision, but his effects are cooler, grayer in tone and higher key, not as black and brown in the shadows, or hot in color, as formerly. Thus his new canvases have a more spiritual, dream like quality. They are more poetica l and show a greater advance new ideas from all schools and methods. 46 MacChesney makes a point to reco gnize that Tanner, traditionally regarded as an 44 Vincent van Gogh letter to his brother Theo van Gogh from Amsterdam dated January, 9 10 1878. http://vangoghletters.org/vg/letters/let139/letter.html 45 International Studio vol. 50, no. 197 (July 1913), 12. 46 Ibid.

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251 that earlier that de cade, Tanner had the opportunity to meet Pablo Picasso in Paris and was fond whole and post 47 s Impressionism, a aesthetic ideals and a willingness to not disregard, but push the bounda ries of representational narrative art, as a means to inspire spiritual contemplatio n and reflection of the divine. It is well established that the Symbolists of the late nineteenth century were interested in creating spiritual art, a preoccupation which no doubt, appealed to Tanner. In building upon ternational Symbolist movement, I am also convinced that his interest in Symbolism carried over and positioned him in dialogue with the ide als of early twentieth century m odernism, specifically that of Wassily uit of universal spiritual art. Neither Tanner n or Kandinsky mention one another in their writings, makin g it impossible to substantiate; yet, it is tempting to consider th at Tanner may have had the opportunity to discuss spiritual art with Kandinsky during the thirteen months the Russian artist lived in Paris between 1906 and 1907. Mathews reported that Tanner met with Picasso during this time, making it feasible that he al so exchanged ideas with Kandinsky, who, in addition to expressing interest in the formal and expressive possibilities of the emerging movements of Fauvism and Cubism, was equally influenced by the legacy of Symbolism. 48 In his study of 47 had met this young artist and seen some of his work in which blue and pink tones predominated, and he had found in Henry Ossawa Tanner, American Artist 127 and 144. 48 was profoundly affected by Symbolist and Neo Impressionist aesthetics and philosophies. Jonathan David Fineberg, Kandinsky in Paris, 1906 1907 (Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1984).

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252 accessible to viewers. These are Symbolist attitudes, based on a concept of art as the revelat ion 49 Embracing the spiritual inclinations of Symbolism, both Tanner and Kandinsky committed themselves to the belief that art had th e capacity to advance humanity. Writing t spiritual intuition. e human contingencies, he felt influences which the common mortal does not perceive his pictures reflect 50 his role and responsibility were to create work that in spired spiritual consciousness, a conviction 51 It is also noteworthy that before spending a year in Paris, Kandinsky traveled and worked for three months in North Africa studying the exotic light, color, and landscape of Tunisia. 52 coincidence, as many Symbolists sought inspiration from so called primi tive, non western cultures due to their p erceived purity and concern in expressing the inner through abstraction, if Tanner and Kandinsky had an opportunity to connect in Paris, it is very possible that the 49 Fineberg, Kandinsky in Paris, 1906 1907 15. 50 Jesse Ossawa Tanner letter to Marcia Mathews, dated February 12, 1966. Henry Ossawa Tanner paper, 1860s 1978, bulk 1890 1937. AAA, Smithsonian Institute 51 Facos, Symbolist Art in Context 197. 52 R oger Benjamin with Cristina Ashjian Kandinsky and Klee in Tunisia (LA: University of California Press, 2015).

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253 d encouraging as Tanner embarked for the success of his first trip, Tanner would return to North Africa in 1912 leading an artistic orocco. Transcendence in Morocco hand experience with the exotic East. During the last week of January 1912, the Tanner Rix expedition, which included Henry, Hilda, Jessie Tanner, and a Ms. Simpson from taples set off from Paris to Madrid. Through her correspondence to friends and relatives Rix provided the most information Inclement weather delayed their crossing to Tangier and made for rough travel. On February 5 th after arriving safely to the ir residence in the Htel Villa de France, a popular residence for artists in the city, Hilda Rix wrote a letter to her sister Elsie that describ The hotel with its terraces standing on top of the hill its big lovely garden i s a joy and from the window of my room I look down on a courtyard which is an unending source of interest to me Silent footed be turbaned servants move about trees, their bran ches bending over the white walls of a Moorish praying ground. The people in the hotel of many nationalities promise to be interesting. 53 53 is very exposed, and seems to be the place for half a dozen currents to meet for there was an awful swell. Nearing land, the sea heaved, building its pale green surface like the huge chest of a heavy sleeper The three others of our party felt fit and I sa id stopping and just slowly rose and fell on the breast of the water oh I began to feel fearful Two of them went downstairs to see about everythin g and Mrs. T [Jessie Tanner] stayed kindly with me Then the others called and she led me by the hand, while I closed tightly my eyes, to the steps and down them to where we hopped into a little boat at critical moment when it heaved up to the shore amid ye lls in the weirdest languages. Hands came forth and landed [Tanner] giving directions to the Moorish sailors and they answering in quite good Englis h I took very little heed, on donkey back and we passed slowly up hill through crowded streets full of wonderful people up and up past queer litt le cubby hole shops, under quaint arches to the foot of the open hill called the Soko where, joy for us, the big

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254 Unlike his enthusiastic travel companion, Henry Tanner did not offer a detailed record of his time in North Africa in w riting, but the painted sketches and finished canvases that are the and unifying possibilitie s of color, shape, and light. A painting that is distinctive in for its large size and inscribed date, is the Entrance to the Casbah (Figure 5 10). This canv as can be safely attributed Tanner, demonstrate an expressive and spiritual interest in blue harmonies, there are examples, including Entrance to the Casbah which are studies of white, yellow, warmth, and light. Desp ite often being ascribed to earlier dates of 1908 and 1910, I would argue that many of the sunlit compositions he created were done on site in Morocco and are, in part, the outcome of the artistic exchange Tanner and Hilda Rix shared with one another and t he larger taples artistic community, including the Australian painters E. Phillips Fox and Ethel Carrick. 54 Entrance to the Casbah demonstrates that Tanner experimented in creating spiritual and contemplative imagery through harmonies of blue, but also tha t he looked to the white hot, colorful sunlight of Morocco as a formal and conceptual pendant to his nocturnal moonlit scenes In Tangier, Tanner explored the emotional and expressive power of color and light, alternating market was in full swing Tangier dated February 5, 191 2, Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS 9817, National Library of Australia. 54 Similar to the Flight into Egypt; Palace of Justice, Tangier finished canvases are difficult to date and place despite being assi gned titles, which suggest they represent Morocco. These undated paintings have frequently been designated as ca. 1908 or ca. 1910 to accommodate for their creation in Algeria, France, or Morocco. However, the paintings that show an interest in capturing s unlight may have been influenced by the work of his Australian colleagues E. Phillips Fox, Ethel Carrick, and Hilda Rix. I believe the following canvases were created on site or as a result of the 1912 Moroccan expedition despite being assigned earlier dat es. Gateway Tangier, Street Scene, Tangier (Man Leading Calf), Street Scene, Tangier (Crenelated Architecture) all dated ca. 1910 in SAAM collection, Washington DC, Sunlight Tangier dated ca. 1910 in Milwaukee Art Museum, Near East Scene dated ca. 1910 in Des Moines Art Center collection.

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255 between blue green and white yello w compositions. In his historical study of color and meaning, John Gage identifies the importance of color polarities especially blue yellow, which fascinated a 55 The opposition of blue and yellow, or of moonlight and sunlight, that Tanner employed in Tangier emotive effects of color in Concerning the Spiritual in Art Two g reat divisions of color occur to the mind at the outset: into warm and cold, and into light and dark. To each color there are thereafter four shades of appeal warm and light or warm and dark, or cold and light or cold and dark. Generally speaking, warmth o r cold in a color means an approach respectively to yellow or also a spiritual one (between yello w and white on one side, between blue and black on the other) which marks a strong separation between the two pairs. 56 As in the Flight to Egypt Tanner simplified and abstracted the cast of Oriental characters in the Entrance to the Casbah effectively des tabilizing their temporality, as well as gender, racial, and religious identities. The title does not suggest an overly religious scene, however, Tanner incorporated familiar and suggestive religious symbols throughout the composition signifying that it sh ould be interpreted as more than a s ecular Orientalist genre scene. T he scene is portrayed from above and at a distance offering the audience a privileged like figure, atop a donkey, veiled in blue, gree patches of violet and blue green, draws the eye into the scene and up the stepped ramp, from which she descended, to a blue and turquoise passageway that creates a dark void within the high keyed hues of the towering citadel walls. The protective walls that encircle the Casbah are 55 John Cage, Color and Meaning: Art, Science, and Symbolism (LA: University of California Press, 1999), 187. 56 Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art 74 76.

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256 animated by thick painterly brushwork that weaves together vibrant complimentary and analogous colors. Access to the inner sanctum of the city is provided through the passage of a large horseshoe arch that pierces the reflective white At the center of this passageway stands the silhouette of an ambiguous figure cloaked in a white burnous or djellaba, a traditio nal Maghrebian garment used for protection from the elements. Tanner employed the burnous as an Oriental signifier, but also to shroud and abstract the individual, allowing him to obscure their identity and present them in the most simplified terms. The th ick layering of various tints of white pigment used to shape the hooded figure renders the individual into an amorphous glowing mandorla similar to the column of light in The Annunciation and the apparition of Christ as he appears, walking toward his disc iples on the moonli t sea of Galilee (Figures 3 5 and 3 12). The burnous itself was symbolic, as it was typically worn by individuals of high standing in North Africa. The ambiguous white figure stands silhouetted again st the dark passageway keeping watch and protecting the entrance to the inner sanctum of the city. Calling upon the repertoire of Christian prototypes the gatekeeper figure could allude to St. Peter or more generally to the importance of protecting sacred spaces, including passage to the kin gdom of heaven. Unnamed gatekeeper figures make appearances throughout the Old and New Testaments as archetypes of trustworthiness, watchfulness, preparedness, protection, and often served as the conveyers of information. 57 Tanner reinforced the theme of pr otection, or gatekeeping, in this scene through the inclusion of a group of figures congregated against the citadel wall in the left of the composition. These figures, known as bowaabs or bawab s, were tasked with the responsibility of keeping 57 For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few. Matthew 7:14. Jesus

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257 watch over a ll varieties of entrances from domestic doorways to monumental gates throughout North Africa. The congregation of bowaabs are pictured wearing djellaba a genderless robe that usually included a hood called a qob identified by its iconic shape. The qob con cealed and protected the wearer creating a triangular form with a point at the apex when pulled on over the head. Tanner may have been inspired to portray the qob for its interesting abstract shape as similar to the burnous the garment rendered these gat ekeepers into abstract g enderless and raceless figures. The Entrance to the Casbah is one of many paintings Tanner created in Morocco that emphasized interest in portrayin g passageways may allude to larger spiritual journeys while also symbolizing his personal and artistic pilgrimage, which involved navigating and traversing obstruction and cultural gatekeepers. The vantage point Tanner chose for The Entrance to the Casbah is significant in that, while many artists, including Hilda Rix and Henri Matisse, also depicted this iconic gate, they chose to situate themselves within the citadel. 58 Tanner portrayed the Casbah gateway from outside the city using the horseshoe arch pass ageway as a physical and conceptual barrier to communica te his position as an outsider. Tanner was not the only artist that focused on Oriental gateways as a symbolic expression Fraser has identified that during his 1832 expedition to North Africa, the artist created more images of thresholds or passageways than any other motif. 59 Fraser attributes his interest in this imagery to the otherwise unrepresented tensions Delacroix expe rienced in Morocco before the kingdom was 58 Hoorn, Moroccan Idyll 74 80. 59 croix and the Art of Nineteenth Cultural Contact and the Making of European Art since the Age of Expansion, edited by Mary Sheriff, 123 152 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2010), 142 143.

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258 more securely wrested by European influences later in the century. Fraser interprets the threshold experience of being out side, the possibility and desire of entering before him, the privilege of most complicated, vulnerable aspects. These conflicting strategies show the artist comin g to 60 Unlike Delacroix, whose European po wer and privilege were inverted by his alien outsider status in the Kingdom of Morocco in 1832, I would argue that in the Moroccan protectorate of 1912, Tanner fou nd a sense of freedom and right s he may not have enjoyed in Europe or America. His portrayal of symbolic barriers, thresholds, and protected passages likely alludes not to his experiences in North Africa, but rather, calls upon a lifetime of struggles, cas obstacles to gain passage into the metaphorical citadel of white culture, while also recognizing h is tenuous position within Belle poque culture and society Marcus Bruce suggested that Tanner po rtrayed specific biblical narratives, which alluded to the trials and triumphs in his own life and artistic career. The theme of pilgrimage was an enduring theme, appearing in many different stylistic variations throughout a rticulates : paintings and what he considered his larger mission and message. He viewed his paintings and invitation to others to reflect and engage in a dialogue on the most fam the closes t he ever came to publically discussing the impact of racial prejudice on his life. Though his letters are filled with comments and remarks about the challenges of pursing a career as a painter in a country obsessed with racial classifications, Tanner rare ly spoke about the subject in public. When he did he 60 certainty: Delacroix and the Art of Nineteenth 143.

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259 used a veiled and indirect language, not unlike the coded visual language he used in his religious paintings, works that speak to the issues at the heart of racial matters without using the more familiar categories, terminology or signs. 61 As camouflage for his meditations on struggle and transcendence, Tanner chose to abstract and manipulate form and color, casting his hybrid pilgrims and protectors within an Orient that was devoid of time or place. Count er to Orientalist imagery that worked to establish difference and western superiority, the simplification and ambiguity of the symbolic holy figures, such as Mary or Peter, and the suggestion of open ended, unresolved, or unfolding biblical narratives, inv ites the viewer to spiritually and psychologically identify with the figure and themes of transition, str uggle, faith, joy, and mystery. Jesse Tanner contended o your rescue, it can reaffirm your confidence in man and his destiny; it can help you surmount your difficulties or console you in your distress. A picture by Tanner is really a part of the artist himself, a mystic whose visions are deeply personal yet un 62 essential as it highlights the accommodations made for personal artistic subjectivity in the making of modern universal art. Kandinsky address ed the duality of subjective/objective or personal/universal in art through the standpoint of mobility. Kandinsky advocated that artists embody their work with personal ideas, beliefs, and feelings because, if sincere, the art will evoke a similar reaction in the viewer. Successful art then 61 Marcus Bruce, Henry Ossawa Tanner: A Spiritual Biography 52 53. 62 Jesse Ossawa Tanner letter to Marcia Mathews dated February 12, 1966. Henry Ossawa Tanner Papers, 1860s 1978, bulk 1890 1937. AAA Smithsonian Institute.

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260 in the aesthetic choices and material form of the art. A beautiful work, according to Kandinsky, 63 between the I and the You designated in a statement. The production of meaning requires that 64 For Tanner, Morocco a nd more generally the East, served as this Third Space acting as an escape from both American and European conventions and classifications. His process of applying numerous layers of pigment and glazes is an existential spiritual and meditative exercise f or the artist, which also invited, or to materials and formal manipulation of colors and symbols were intended to communicate on multiple levels. Commenting Gallery in New York City in 1913, the critic for the New York American made note of the artis new treatment of materials. If you examine his canvases closely, you will find that th e blue is threaded through with strokes of purple, gray and pinkish mauve, and more sparingly with found to be dragged over with threads of pink, pale mauve and green. It is t his way that Tanner introduces chromatic relations into the dark and light colors of his canvas and so draws them into a unity of vibrating and resonant harmony. 65 63 Kandinsky, Concerning the Spiritual in Art 68. 64 Bhabha, The Location of Culture 53. 65 New York American April 14, 1913. Quote reproduced in Mathews, Henry Ossawa Tanner: American Artist 147 148.

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261 created mixing, weaving, and interlocking his pigments and glazes into harmonies and comp lementary studies of light and darkness, which further alluded to interconnectedness and unity of humanity. reveals that, not unlike Kandinsky, he viewed abstrac tion and modern universalism as a vehicle to achieve a hybrid spiritual art. part because they presented venerable religious figures in an un idealized manner within the comfort of domestic setting encouraging viewers to relate to the humanity of these individuals Orientalism manipulated color and form for expressive effect, rendering these same religious figures as abstracted archetypes to invite viewers to identify directly psychologically and spiritually fixed ambiguity accommodated viewers regardless of their identity. To achieve these g oals, Tanner reinforced the colonial perception of the Orient as a site of stasis to collapse time and space, thus providing a biblical narrative that existential spi ritua l contemplation with the image. Although he never returned to the Orient after 1912, for the remainder of his career Tanner revisited the imagery and architectural motifs of Morocco. In the aftermath of the great conflict and loss inflicted during Wor ld Wa r One, the artist focused on biblical themes and narratives that were personal and poignant including the Good Shepherd and the Flight to Egypt,

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262 which in the post war context likely evoked his own migration, transition, and transformation during and after the war. In his 1923 Flight into Egypt (Figure 5 11) Tanner portrayed one of his favorite gospel stories by drawing from his repertoire of Oriental imagery. He once again called on the symbolic figure of the bowaabs as archetypal protectors to guide the holy family. The ambiguous bowaab figure symbolically holds possession of a lantern indicating his spirituality, while illuminating the path for Mary and her newborn son, easing the heavy burden of their transient and uncertain state. The holy family i s depicted in transition, either beginning, ending, or stopping for shelter along their arduous pilgrimage to freedom. The figures are sheltered and passage, but may 66 While it is impossible to know whether Kandinsky and Tanner had the opportunity to discuss and share their philosophy on spiritual art, their mutual interests speak to how European artists responded to the need for art that could communicate universally to humanity in the face of the dynamic changes and tensions leading up to the First World Wa the Orient as a means to escape his own classifications and create art that he believed could communicate by transcending cultural boundaries and binaries, illuminates how he situated himself within the existing discourse of Orien talism and interpreted his role as an artist in r elation to modern universalism. 66 In t he Metropolitan Museum of Art collection. On the back of this canvas is a study for Christ at the Home of Lazarus ," 1911 1912, present location unknown.

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263 In 1911, the year before Tanner embarked for Morocco, Kandinsky published ber das Geistige in der Kunst ( Concerning the Spiritual in Art). 67 handbook to abstraction crystalized in writing aspects of what Tanner would attempt in his Orientalism. While Kandinsky ultimately found expression for the spiritual through non representational art, Tanner found his own freedom to experiment with color, light, and religious symbolism within the geographic and conceptual pace of the Orient, bridging past and present, Paris and Tangier, and academic and avant garde tenets to create a truly unique spiritually infused hybrid art t hat transcended clas sification 67 Published in 1911 as ber das Geistige in der Kunst, translated into French in 1912 as Du Spirituel and appeared in English, translated by Michael Sadler in 1914 as Concerning the Spiritual in Art.

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264 Figure 5 1 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Nicodemus Visiting Jesus 1899, oil o n canvas, 85.6 x 100.3 cm. Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, Philadelphia, PA. Figure 5 2 Jean Joseph Benjamin Constant, Evening on the Terrace (Morocco) 1879. Oil on canvas 123 x 198.5 cm., Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.

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265 Figure 5 3 Jean Joseph Benjamin Constant, Arabian Nights n.d., Oil on canvas, approx 46.9 x 88.9 cm. Private Collection. Figure 5 4 Jean Lon Grme, Snake Charmer c a 1879. Oil on canvas, 82.2 x 121 cm. Sterling and Francine Clark Museum, Williamstown, MA.

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266 Figure 5 5. Henry Ossawa Tanner, In Constantine ca. 1908. Watercolor and gouache on paper, 45.09 x 33.02 cm. Rosenfeld Fine Arts, NY Figure 5 6. Henry Ossawa Tanner Flight into Egypt: Palais de Justice, Tangier, ca. 1908. Oil on canvas, 65.1 x 81.0 cm. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC.

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267 Figure 5 7 Photographic postcard of the Palais de Justice, Tangier ca. 1900. Figure 5 8. Detail of s urface, Flight into Egypt ca. 1908.

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268 Figure 5 9. Detail of holy family, Flight in to Egypt, 1908. Figure 5 1 0. Henry Ossawa Tanner, Entrance to the Casbah 1912. Oil on wood pulp pape r mounted on canvas, 81.2 x 67.3 cm. Art Museum of Greater Lafayette, IN.

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269 Figure 5 11. Henry Ossawa Tanner, Flight into Egypt 1923. Oil on canvas, 73.7 x 66 cm. Metropolitan Museum of Art NY

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270 CHAPTER 6 MIMICRY AND HYSTERIA IN THE ORIENT We are really truly here!!! And Oh oh oh it is wonderful!! So much l ike an nd it all gone oh it is impossible to give you the faintest impression of it all for it is more splendid than I thought a great great deal. There is such quantity and ri chness of wonderful picturesqueness every way one turns the head there is a new picture. The people are dears so glorious, splendid features and so many with great calm dignity e as people in Paris and Madrid Thank goodness for that it will make it more comfortable for sketching ning to start shall take one days rest tho after such a crossing! Hilda Rix L etter from Tangier dated February 5, 1912 The excitement Hilda Rix felt when finally reaching Tangi er in February of 1912 is apparent in a letter she wrote the day of her arrival to her sister and mother in taples. The artist determination to start her work and capt enthusiasm speaks to what she believed her efforts in Morocco, and the creation of Orientalist imagery could do for her status as an artist. Mobilizing the Orientalist trope of western escape and freedom, t he aspiring Australian artist viewed her travel to Morocco as a conduit through which she could experiment and create art more freely than in Australia or Europe, uninhibited by the societal rules that governed a young bourgeois woman like herself in the W est. During her 1 In Morocco, Hilda Rix evaded to instead capitalize on the privilege her whiteness and western identity granted her to access and portray the exotic Other. This privilege allowed Rix to creatively maneuver and situate herself 1 Elsie Rix letter to Elizabeth Rix from Tangier, dated February 14, 1914. Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS9817.

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271 within the traditions and visual discourse of Orientalism an d by extension facilitated her entry into the dominant discourses of Belle poque art. Although Hilda Rix attracted attention when sketching in the Moroccan marketplace, even earning a kind of celebrity status in Tangier, her sister Elsie Rix reported that 2 Within the complex hierarchal and intersecting binary systems of colonial identity, relationship to western authority that subl imated the otherness of her gender. When sketching and painting in North Africa, Rix was or a maker of images. 3 Seeking to work and be recognized on equal terms with her male collea gues, Rix power and authority Orientalism represented in Belle poque art. In Morocco, Rix self consciously produced a visual and textual record that was intende d to emphasize her presence, privilege, and difference from the subjects she was so captivated by, demonstrating her embr acing Orientalism as an expression of power, reflects thoughts positional superiority, which puts the Westerner in a whole series of possible relationships with the Orie 4 2 y when she was drawing she was surrounded by a big semicircle of people, but they were always considerate enough to stand behind her, and mostly spoke in whispers for fear of interrupting. She got a glorious sketch full of colour, also full of the sizzle t Elizabeth Rix from Htel Villa de France, Tangier. Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS9817 3 Hilda Rix letter to Elizabeth and Elsie from Htel Villa de France, Tangier February 1912. Papers o f Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS 9817. 4 Said, Orientalism 7.

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272 As she did in Paris and taples, to participate and be accepted into the male dominated world of fine art, Rix mimicked traditions and stereotypes, which both resisted and reinforced existing i deology. In Morocco, Rix adopted the language of Orientalism as a means of self affirmation, but also chose her subjects carefully and challenged misogynistic stereotypes of home and 5 understanding these fantasies as repressive of all women. 6 onial ambivalence, Reina Lewis has identified the duality of others. heterogeneity as a mode of discourse. In her study of female European painters and literature authored by Turkish women Lewis suggests that ary Orientalism challenged as many cherished male fantasies as it upheld. So, dominant Orientalist discourse can be 7 By participating in the colonial discourse of Oriental ism, Rix took on the challenge of negotiating an image of the exotic Other that undermined patriarchal fantasy, while also elevating her status in relation to the Moroccan people she had the power to portray as a means 5 Lewis, Gendering Orientalism 162. 6 In 1912 the artist had the opportunity to visit a harem and recounted her experience in a lecture delivered after her rprised to learn that althou [sic] we may pity the Eastern women for begin veiled, and closed in, and tucked away may have visions of a Harem culled from a Western Poem or from a scene in a theater produced by a western manager. I visited a harem, and my [?] meeting is of very nice, rather lovely little ladies, sitting aroun d on cushions against the walls who rose eag erly to greet and talk with us to whose busy eyes and fingers caressed curiously our funny Western clothes. I was very fortunate in having friends who knew most of the wealthy Moors of Tetuan and my women friends spoke Arabic and could interpret for me. So me of my women painter friends, the other day, asked me had I not been afraid to go into a harem when I asked she said of being Hilda Rix, undated manuscript, Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS9817. 7 Reina Lewis Cultural Rei terations: Demetra Vaka Brown and the Performance of Racialized Female Performing the Body/Performing the Text edited by Amelia Jones and Andrew Stephenson, 56 75 (NY: Routledge, 1999), 60.

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273 to assert her identity as an artist. These contradictions are further problematized by her a ntipodean upbringing and status as subject of the B ritish Empire. As an Australian a nd a provincial outside customs of North Africa indicated that she possessed the cultural competency necessary to navigate within and contribute to both patriarchal and i ambivalent approach to Orientalism and the contradictions in her work are reflective of R eina art were to some extent aspiring to recognition in the terms of their culture. The contradictions of their position mean that their representations are likel y simultaneously to confirm and transgress 8 As in her imagery of cosmopolitan artifice and rural peasant women, a tension exists in t fantasies, that results in a dialectic of Orientalism and a Counter Orientalism. It is within this space for herself as an artist, working and existing wit hin a tradition of fine art that was designed to exclude her. Australian Orientalism and Romantic A ntecedent s to participate in this colonial discourse as represent ative of their cultural aspirations and a testament of Europeanness. The incorporation of exotic elements in their work communicated that these artists had cultural knowledge and competence in European ideology and fashions. Following in the footsteps of A ustralian artists who found success in Europe, including her mentors, Arthur Streeton and E. Phillips Fox, Hilda Rix would have presented her Orientalism as 8 Lewis, Gendering Orientalism, 22.

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274 a demonstration and self affirmation of her cosmopolitan interests and a badge of European cultural sophistication. studying and capturing the exotic light of North Africa. Many artists were motivated to travel to Morocco, Tunis, and Algeria as it was believed the light there was exceptional. 9 Scholars have argued that Australian artists demonstrated a special propensity in their ability to convey scorched landscapes of the arid bushland and coastal Australi a. When convalescing in Algiers in 1891, the English Australian rica 10 Similarly in Morocco, Hilda delighted in the discovery of foliage and vegetation she associated with Australia. She made special reference to the gum trees she was accustomed to growing up in Melbou rne, which offered her a connection to something familiar and comforting used to in Australia great masses of purple bougainvillea, trees of different kinds o f acacias, 11 of European imperialism, which circulated through colonial networks and channels of 9 Hoorn, Morocc an Idyll, 79. 10 Orientalism: Delacroix to Klee edited by Roger Benjamin, 41 53 (Sydney, NSW: Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1997), 49. 11 Hilda Rix lett Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS 9817.

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275 communication. As provincial outsiders, white A culturally diverse and geographically expansive context of the British Empire was strained by their temporal and geographic distance from the metropole, but also indelibly linked to a sense of Britishness on account itself part of the discourse of imperialism was inherently conflicted and ambivalent. 12 In mimicking the traditions of imperial and patriarchal art, Rix adopted the language and perception of the from Morocco captured her youthful excitement and passion, but also disclosed her colonial bias. Throughout her communication frequently as picturesque, queer, mischievous, and even fatalists. 13 descriptions and images ensured that she established her difference from the exotic Others she was there to depict. In a letter written to her mother and now to rest and dream of a calm crossing tomorrow to the wonderful fairytale land of the Moors 14 already we ll established picturesque and exotic expectations for the Orient. Evidence of the wrote from Tangier to Harry and Florence Van der Weyden in taples: Oh m y dears the people are going to enchant me over in Tangier. I know by the Moors I have already seen here. Their wonderful simplicity of drapery in period many thousand years ago is just as if they had walked out of a bible story. They 12 13 14 Hilda Rix letter to Elsie and Elizabeth Rix from Gibraltar dated February 4, 1912. Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas MS9817.

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276 are more stunning tha n any pictures I have ever seen of them more quaint and wonderful 15 account artist described the locals as if they belonged to the classical past: The picturesque abounds here. At each step there are tableaux already made which would m ake the fortune and the glory of twenty generations of painters. You believe yourself in Rome or Athens without the Atticism, but with the robes, togas and a thousand other of the most antique details. A rouge who repairs shoes for a few pennies has the dr ess and the form of a Brutus or a Cato. 16 stereotypes were integrated perception of Morocco was inherited by Rix and many others, who traveled to North Africa and the Middle East in search of a hermetic pre modern culture to exploit for aesthetic gain. Through out the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, artists were drawn to North Africa pursuing arriving in Morocco eighty years after his avant garde predecessor, Matis 17 More than a 15 Hilda Rix Nicholas MS9817. 16 is nearly impossible that she would have had the opportunity to see these, e xhibited in 1885 and again 1930 in Pa ris. The Cambridge Companion to Delacroix edited by Beth S. Wright, 69 87 (Cambridge, UK: University of Cambridge Press, 2001), 77. 17 Quote reproduced by Delacroix in Morocco exhibition catalog (Paris: Flammarion, 1994), 26.

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277 century of Orientalist discourse provided the necessary material for both Rix and Matisse to imagine and shape their view of Morocco before they left Paris. Miming the Mimic in Morocco In early February of 1912, after spending time in Madrid, Toledo, and Gibraltar, Henry Tanner and Hilda Rix arrived in the French protectorate of Morocco. As a senior and well respected member of the taples c ommuni eagerness is obvious in her correspondence with friends in the days before they Tanner comes Tonight to Paris Tomorrow morning. We go over the other side to get our tickets which take 24 hours to mature then off we go on Saturday evening you where and how long we are to stay on way to Tangiers d see 18 oppressive ideology of whiteness that structured Belle poque art, i t is likely that he recognized an artist in a culture and society that sought to control and marginalize women. At transitional points in their careers, Tanner an d Rix welcomed the artistic pilgrimage to North Africa as an avenue towards greater artistic freedom and agency. In Morocco, both artists capitalized on their privilege within the colonial system to portray an Orient that was reflective of their individual desires and aspirations. and Miss Simpson are very nice 19 In detailed account she described 18 Hilda Rix letter dated January 25, 1912. Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS 9817. 19 Hilda Rix undated letter from Tangiers to Elise and Elizabeth Rix Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS9817.

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278 to Ttouan by mule, app roximately 40 miles east of Tangier. 20 They arrived to the medieval city of Ttouan by moonlight and found the gates to the citadel locked. After much negotiation, their guide convinced the local Pasha to let them in for the night after which they promptly next day. Rix reported: Next morning the joys of Tetuan [ Ttouan ] began to dawn upon us Oh the arches, doorways, little streets, quaint lovely people houses and the whole glorio us white houses we came suddenly to a place where freshly dyed silk, hung in great skeins across the street poles. Colour!, Colour! 21 Outside this particular outing, it is unclear how much time Henry Tanner and Hilda Rix spent painting or sketching together in Morocco. In her correspondence with friends and family, Hilda frequently described sketching in colored pencil, pastels, and charcoal in the Grand Soko (or Socco), the large public marketplace in the Medina, alone or chaperoned by a Miss Simpson. It seems that Rix preferred sketching to painting during her first stay in Morocco, perhaps because she was more confident in her drawing skills and the prospect of attempting to adva nce her plein air painting in a foreign environment may have been too daunting. However, the artist did complete a handful of painted sketches during her 1912 and 1914 stays in Morocco which, co, suggest that the younger artist imitated the methods and subject matter of her traveling partner, as well as the Orientalist imagery of her Australian compatriots, E. Phillip Fox and Ethel Carrick. 20 the curly roots of the tree, and was fanned Oh deary me, I was hungry, and devoured my lunch raven ously It was down steep paths our sure footed mules picking their way between huge boulders with dainty discretion On and on we went, some of our party looking like Tangiers to Elise and Elizabeth Rix, Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS9817. 21 Hilda Rix undated letter from Tangiers to Elise and Elizabeth Rix, Papers of Hilda Rix Nichola s, MS9817.

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279 affiliation with Australian artists began lon g before he met Hilda Rix in taples Australians. As a student, he shared a Montparnasse studio with Australian artists Hugh Ramsay and Ambrose Patterson, both of whom s tudied with E. Phillips Fox in Melbourne before venturing to Europe and the Acadmies Julian and Colarossi. 22 It is possible that after spending English spea king art colony in taples beginning the summer of 1900. His connection to and relationships with Australian artists, most significantly Fox and Carrick in Paris and taples, no doubt made his introduction to Hilda Rix the summer of 1910 possible. While Ri x considered Carrick and Fox mentors, there is evidence that Tanner also engaged in a mutual and collaborative relationship with the artistic couple. Ursula Prunster has Fox and Carrick to embark on their own Orientalist expedition for six weeks to Algeria and Morocco beginning February of 1911. 23 The sketches and finished work that Carrick and Fox painted in Street in Morocco (Figure 6 1), are sun drenched landscapes that include whitewashed Islamic architecture as a backdrop for quotidian scenes of daily life. The loose and spontaneous application of pure pigments on canvas board and wood panels captured e light and bold colors of North Africa by painting en plein air to experimenting with white yellow hues to capture the intense sunlight of Morocco as a complement to his blue green moonlit studies. 22 Patricia Fullerton, 'Ramsay, Hugh (1877 1906)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ramsay hugh 8150/text14243, published first in hardcopy 1988, acc essed online 22 May 2018. 23

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280 to the glaring North African sunlight is Moroccan loggia (Figure 6 2). The paintings Rix completed in Morocco are like nothing she cre ated before. As an artist who remained grounded Impressionist palette of vivid colors and a looser, more improvised application of paint in Morocco may be attributed to an emu horseshoe arched arcade with thick daubs of opaque white and blue pigments. The white hot sun is suggested through the handling of her medium, in which she lays down patches of undil uted titanium white, creating sections of the canvas that are heavily built up in an impastoed surface. The chunky materiality of these sections conveys the reflective sunlight and heat that radiates off the white arches enticing ly seek shade and shelter in the cool blue shadows of the loggia. With two more years of painting experience under her belt, during her second visit to imagery Through the arch to the sea (Figure 6 Entrance to the Casbah (Figure 5 10) in its style and interest in arch and passageways populated with abstracted veiled figures. Imitating her Australian and American mentors, Rix captured the iconic architecture and reflective light of Morocco through a thick, spontaneous application of pigments. The painted compositions Rix completed in Tangier between 1912 and 1914 are the most modern and experimental of her career paintings are some of the earliest work completed by an Australian artist, male or female, in the

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281 24 handling of oils and high keye d palette may have been influenced by Henri Matisse who, coincidently, traveled to Tangier the winter of 1912 an d took up residence in the Htel Villa de France, which would have placed the young artist in close quarters with the well known Fauvist painter. 25 underwent an interesting development during her first trip to Morocco. Her oils took on a decidedly post impressionist appearance as she began to use bigger blocks of color and looser 26 While it is very possible that Rix made contact with Matisse in Morocco, however, I believe her willingness to experiment with a more progressive modernist aesthetic was directly shaped by the work of her travel companion, Henry Tanner, and to a large degree, her res Africa completed the previous year. 27 As a successful woman painter, Carrick no doubt served as a role model and inspiration vant garde for 24 Hoorn, Moroccan Idyll 9. 25 Albert Marquet or the Canadian artist James Wilson Morrice, both of whom were in Morocco during Tanner and finished, our smiling host was told that I could sing, and two of my friends who spoke Arabic, translated his desire to hear me, and so I sang! I wonder how it sounded to their Moorish ears, judging by the smiling nods and bows of approval, but a Moor is a very prince of politeness. My party then bade their farewells, save Mr M and I, who were given permission to sketch by my smiles, crept nearer They were not the sacredly sealed inmates of the harem, but slave women, old and young, and little children, all dressed gorgeously, and looking thoroughly happy. And, how could they be otherwise, in this beautiful setting? W hen our sketches were finishe d, Mr. M and I departed with many thanks for our charming visit. Hilda Rix, letter to Elise and Elizabeth Rix, no date. Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS9817. 26 Hecate vol. 40, issue 2 (2014), 22. 27 1909 Matisse had an open studio at 19 quai de St. Michelle once a week. There he would show his earlier work t o his students, comparing it to the works he was currently working on to reveal the process through which he had derived his fauvist compositions. Most of those who turned up were foreign students from the Acadmie Colarossi, so it is possible that Hilda f Moroccan Idyll 24.

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282 her interest in Fauvism. Where each artist chose to exhibit their Orientalist work is indicative of how they situated themselves with the aesthetic and stylistic terrain of Belle poque art. While Fox continued to exhibit regularly at the Sa lon in Paris and the Royal Academy of Arts in London, institutions known for their conservative academic values, in 1911 Carrick chose to progressive organization wife is doing some very interesting and personal stuff she is Socitaire of the Autumn Salon and 28 Impressionist work i n Morocco also illustrates architectural motifs populated with ambiguous, yet powerfully symbolic figures, Carrick focused her attention on public market sce nes that included colorful vendors and their products, illustrated by her 1911 Moroccan Street (Figure 6 4). Perhaps because of his shyness or Orientalist work a voided overtly portraying local figures in public spaces. sense of freedom she gained in Morocco Grand Soko. Moreov spaces was their response in negotiating how to most effectively create imagery that adopted an Orientalist language, but rejected its violent, sensational, and erotic tropes. In h is study of 28 It seems that Fox was not interested in Post Impressionism. In a 1913 interview, the artist was quoted as saying he disliked the Post Impressionists because they did not

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283 As European painters and colonists they [Rix and Carrick] were granted automatic rights of visual and cultural possession, but as women they were not able to claim the Orient in quite the same way as the men...their artistic practice European woman to claim the Orient through the naked bodies of exotic women, as men had done. Possession of a public space was less pr oblematic and was not subject to the same gendered classifications as other subjects in the Orient. 29 Rix gained a sense of freedom and authority to work as an artist in Morocco and ironically, on account of her gender, she may have been given special dispe nsation to sketch in public, an activity her male colleagues traditionally avoided because they were often met with hostility and barred from doing so. Rix was likely tolerated because her presence was not viewed as threatening as that of male Orientalists Writing in 1913, Clara MacChesney informed her readers of the hazards western artists faced in Morocco. There is a danger for the art seeker, and he finds everything to fight against, and conditions never easy. The anti Christian feeling is particularly strong in Tangier, 30 Rix acknowledged the indulgence she was granted by the local population writing: of shutters going down over stalls and hoods being drawn over 31 Despite m arket place and her ability to capture interesting subjects. Distinguishing Difference in the Grand Soko Notably, Carrick, Rix, and Tanner all avoided sensational, violent, and erotic Oriental subjects that were popular with western audiences and instead attended to architectural motifs, public daily life, and the effects of light in North Africa. As Pigot suggested, in order for Rix to 29 30 31 Hilda Rix undated letter to Van der Weydens. Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS9817.

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284 acquire the artistic authority she sought after, she needed to carefully choose her subject matter. Grand Soko allowed her to exercise a certain degree of authority through her ability as a white westerner to look and describe Oriental types, but importantly resist Orientalist subjects of fantasy especially those that exploited women. Deploying Orientalism as a powerful visual language to describe exotic otherness, Rix captured different types of people as they engaged in public interactions in the marketplace. In her studies of Orienta protected by their clothing in a public space as an inversion of the male fantasy of the nude or semi clad odalisque within the private privileged space of the harem or Turkish bath. Rix ensured that the figures retain their exotic otherness while rejecting the escapist fantasy that s. in the public market with realism and attention to detail as her de 32 interactions and conversation in the Grand Soko as an attempt to link the cosmopolitan centers of Morocco, France, and Australia, highlighting the expose the myths and misrepresentations of the East perpetuated by Orientalist stereotypes. 33 Hoorn argues that: 32 Hoorn, Moroccan Idyll 4. 33 Hectate, vol. 42 (2016), 92.

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285 was, in fact, a p Setting the record straight, she focused on the quotidian, presenting a universalizing account of the life and culture she witnessed in Tangier. 34 fashioned against the Rather, the artist reinforced many Orientalist stereotypes in order to distinguish and elevate her own status in relation to the Others she had the opportunity and authority to portray dentity as a white western hand experience, careful study, and the graphic clarity of her images, all of which contributed to Orient. By appropriating the subject position of a male artist and mimicking the pictorial language and tropes of Orientalism, Rix repeated many of its ideological codes, which Linda Nochlin identified as a variety of absences including time, place, and a visible western presence, all of which Rix reinforced in her images of Morocco. In her desire to focus on exotic clothing er. Additionally, although she made note of the 34

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286 European presence and influence in her letters, she took care not to contaminate the purity of her images with any evidence of the West. 35 Charcoal Sellers (Figure 6 cated sense of design and advanced skills as a draftswoman, but also her ability to communicate an exotic otherness through a compilation of Oriental signifiers including the camel, Riffian headdress, and veiled woman. Employing the male defined language o f exoticism, but being vigilant to avoid Orientalist mythology of the erotic, violent, or sensational, Rix fabricated an image that illustrated her ability to capture and manipulate subjects in Tangier. Although she described working quickly and diligently in public spaces, the carefully considered composition of this sketch, like many others, was no doubt worked over when she returned to her hotel. Instead of The Charcoal Sellers is a hi ghly self Although the finished drawing is thoughtfully rendered and organized, the artist recounted her frenzied efforts to capture the novel appearance of the princi ple female figure. Oh you would have loved being with me today in the big Soco [sic]. There was an extraordinarily huge market in progress. Cram, jam packing full of the most weird squeezed my way beneath this seething mass of animals and human beings and dodging bumps and jostling as much as possible proceeded to work while a merry interested crowd grew before me. I put into my foreground one of the many women who, like any of the other bea sts of burden, had tramped fifteen miles bearing a heavy load on her back. She wore scant attire made of a series of towels, her face all but the eyes was bond and veiled, her legs were encased in primitive leather gaiters and, which is rare to see, the he els of her shoes were twined up because she had passed through boggy country coming from inland to this sea port city. I got her in my sketch before the teasing crowd had succeeded in 35 ne feels the making of history in the air of Morocco. There is a bustle and a thrill and an undercurrent of big things happening. On the surface everything is peaceful and happy, and pulling beneath their noses. The bigger also notes witnessing the reception celebrating the official signing of the French protectorate of Morocco between the Sultan and French minister of affairs. Hilda Rix undated letter to Elizabeth Rix. Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas MS9817.

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287 making her understand what I was about, hurrah! Then I slipped away, and got lost in the multitude. 36 The Charcoal Sellers is telling not only of the problematic way in which she associated the veiled woman she portrayed with her pack animals, and the identification of her cl othing with primitivism, but the manner in which the the crowded market. By contrast, Hoorn described Rix as being sensitive and demonstrating discretion when sketching subjects in the Soko: The injunction against the making of image which was adhered to by strict Muslims meant that any painting in public places had to be done discreetly and in a manner which showed grateful acknowledgment of the indulgence giv en by local people to the artist. If anyone showed discomfort Rix immediately ceased drawing or painting; she packed her materials and awaited a more opportune moment. 37 appraisal d escribes her unwelcome pursuit of subjects in the market, a feat she considered an accomplishment and was proud enough to publish. During her second stay in Tangier, the artist wrote to the International Studio which included her letter in their November 1914 issue. In scenes in the Soko. Pigot made note of the language Rix used, which he believed implied a sense of possession 38 International Studio 36 Hilda Rix undated letter to Van der Weydens. Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS9817. 37 38 comfy, and smart looking too, got most things oh a jolly pencil bag really a hunters bag and then place for holding the cartridges is just fine for holding my pencil s it strap s across my shoulders with the extra odd things to put in 38

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288 included her account of stalking and ultimately chasing an unwilling subject and his camels out of the Soko. Of course many subterfuges have to be employed to keep the victim unsuspecting but unhappily someone in my audience invariably recognizes my prey and calls to coming up from the Soko, I saw two camels scaling superciliously down the hill bag of ammunition and my big drawing board, I followed them. They descended the hill to the foot of the Soko where their master made them kneel to be unloaded. I began my work, and immediately a merry crowd formed around me; but the owner of the camel, a man from the interior, unused to my naughty ways, at once became agitated planted himself in front of the beast, and a friend, looking equally fierce, joined him; the two of them holding out their wide jelabas [djellabas] succeeded in heated comment and laughter. Instead o f going quite away, however, I made a little detour and returned to that corner of the Soko, but on the other side of the camel, and stood on a two foot high wall from where I got a splendid view of my game. I proceeded to draw feverishly. 39 Far from descri ignore cultural norms and prohibitions for her own advantage. Furthermore, her letter reveals a sense of desire for the Oriental Other that she does not possess or have control over, offering a very different view of the power relations and the assumptions of mastery that male Orientalists likely unintentionally disclose s her unstable position within this male dominated discourse. Her method of hunting and poaching subjects in Morocco reveals a power dynamic between herself and her often unwilling subjects that were highly unpredictable and potentially precarious. International Studio was an effort on her part to articulate and attempt to substantiate her presence as an artist working in a dominant tradition of fine art. Between 1912 and 1914, the artist fashioned a matrix of visual and textual documents that worked to establish her pre sence in Morocco and by extension reinforce her position as a Belle poque artist. 39 International Studio vol. 54 (Nov ember 1914): 35 41.

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289 During her second stay in Tangier, Rix ensured that her sketches from the Soko were ough photogra phs. (Figure 6 6). The authoritative, scientific, and documentary associations of photography may be western difference and sense of superiority. distanced from them, her dress and bearing signifying her different status. The artist is able to look at the site and construct its imaginary space for herself, but Western fantasy with no control over the European artists and photographer standing in their midst. 40 interpretation of colonial discourse, which does not account for the slippages, contradictions, and resistance in her descriptions of Morocco. The ambivalence, tension, and tenuous claims to role as cultural producers of imperial discourse, Lewis ask to Orientalism and imperialism as a series of identifications that did not have to be either simply 41 It is through this unde polysemic in 42 40 41 Lewis, Gendering Orientalism 237. 42

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290 Orientalist d esires as well as the potential for female identification is Arab Women at Market (Figure 6 7). Rix captured both male and female subjects in the Soko, but was especially interested in describing the exotic costumes of Arab women and their role in commerce and public life. Her sketch articulates the colorful wares and people of the Grand Soko through confident and economic mark making. Rix rendered the tight quarters of the marketplace with a sense of spontaneity, which in tandem with the photographs attemp ted to secure her place in the Soko while also maintaining her distance and difference as a western bystander to the transaction she documents. The vantage point suggests a proximity to the three main figures who dominate the center of the composition, how ever the seated figure with their back to the artist, dressed in a traditional Riffian hat and striped red and white pants, creates a barrier that separated Rix from the interaction she captured between a veiled female customer and vendor. The artist break s the illusion of a fly on the wall, or detached observer, by choosing to capture the veiled woman making eye contact with the artist/viewer. While establishing a sense of difference between herself and her subjects, by making eye contact with the figure t hrough her veil, Rix also provides a point of entry and potential identification for a female viewer. The exotic clothing that protects and conceals the figure in the white haik similar to the veiled subject in The Charcoal Sellers (Figure 6 5), works to deflect the colonial male gaze. The Charcoal Sellers as rigidly in profile with her face from male Orientalist obje

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291 43 without their bodies being made available for scrutiny and enjoyment. In Colonial Fantasies Meyda considers the politics and power of the veil a symbol of female Muslim identity, and the obsession and apprehension it causes for the western male: The veiled woman is not simply an obstacle in the field of visibility and control, but her veiled presence also seems to provide the Western subject with a does not imply a mere loss of sight, but a complete reversal of positions: her body completely invisible to the Europ ean observer except for here eyes, the veiled woman can see without being seen 44 from her efforts there disrupt the monopoly of the male gaze and authority over the Or ient. participation in Orientalism and the imposition of her female gaze within the traditional power dynamic threatens the phallocentric paradigm of Male/Female, Occident/Orient. 45 choice to portray veiled women in public interactions de Oriental Ambivalence Exploitation or Subversion? The success of the 1912 expedition likely convinced the artist to invest in a second trip to Morocc o the spring of 1914, this time accompanied by her older sister, Elsie Rix During this voyage, the artist continued her efforts sketching in the Grand Soko and benefited from the assistance her sister provided in sharpening pencils and ru n n ing interferenc e if she drew too large a crowd. Yet, on this exp edition, the Rix sisters were forced to contend with unfavorable weather, which made plein air sketching or painting nearly impossible. I n a letter written to their m other from the Htel Villa de France Elsi e Rix lamented : 43 44 Meyda Colonial Fantasies 43. 45 Lewis, Gendering Orientalism, 162.

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292 46 In her six weeks after their arrival in Tangier, making Hilda Rix mpts to capitalize on her earlier success of portraying Oriental types in public spaces far more difficult 47 Moroccans to sit for portraits in her hotel chamber was considerably more challenging. Once again, in the event when the artist was able to acquire models, her gender may have worked in her favor as she was not viewed as threatening when compared to male artists. Elsie Rix rec Everyone says its [sic] absolutely impossible to get models here. You get them to y. Or maybe their friends and relatives hear 48 Desperate to find appropriately exotic subject matter during their time in Tangier, Elsie provided a detailed account of an opportunit y Hilda was granted to sketch an escaped slave that was being held by the French Consul in Tangier awaiting trail. The outcome is An African Slave W oman (Figure 6 8) and A Negro Woman Morocco (Figure 6 9), both of which were reproduced in black and white w International Studio 49 46 Elsie Rix letter to Elizabeth Rix from Htel Villa de France dated March 13, 1914. Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS9817. 47 Hoorn, Moroccan Idyll 69. In 1913 Matisse suffered a similar predicament in Tangier, which resulted in a series of colorfully abstract still lifes and landscapes of the city framed by his window in the Htel Villa de France. In days. 48 Elsie Rix l etter to Elizabeth Rix from Htel Villa de France dated March 13, 1914. Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS9817 49

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293 study of a woman deep in thought and seemingly worried as she contemplates an uncertain 50 e tribulation n one of the benches of the tribunal in the French Embassy: No I am not being tried for any offense against the law but I am chaperoning Hilda while she draws an escaped slave 51 Elsie continued to as being held at the French embassy: He [a M. Malzac] told us that the woman was an escaped slave He heard of her and wished to rescue her So he got one of the Algerians attached to the embassy to go pretending he wished to buy the woman. He said he wished to show her to his family before he bought her though slavery is supposed to be finished yet a lot of it goes on above all in the interior and as slavery is not really abolished the French have no right to interf ere. 52 slave is the lack of humanity granted to her, a consequence of the multiple layers of otherness assigned to her within the intersections of colonial, racial, an d gendered difference. Expressing a surprising level of apathy, Elsie described the African woman only in terms of her appearance account makes it clear the woman was not altogether com fortable or compliant with having her image made. Well Hilda and I are now as I told you before the tribunal. They have hung a cream burnous behind her head for a background. She has a good type not really 50 Hoorn, Moroccan Idyll 170 51 52 Ibid.

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294 beautiful and nothing in the way of clothes save t hat the black handkerchief bound around her head has a red border and is interesting against her bronze face: her dress is a washed out pink cotton jelaba [ ] with an old darned but she just curls up with fear every moment and doesn't know to stay still. 53 While the historical period and context is quite different, I believe Jame thorough examination of Marie (Figure 6 10) of colonialism, slavery, and patriarchy in the ear ly twentieth century. 54 While I am not suggesting that Rix consciously created her studies of the African woman to serve as an analogy for the subjugation of women principally white women under patriarchy as akin to slavery, these images, and their subseque nt dissemination in print through the International Studio communicated certain claims about women and the continued practice of human bondage, which positioning within Orientalism makes her intentions in both the making and publication of these images ambiguous. The result of this ambiguity and ambivalence is an unresolved tension between the exploitation of the African woman and the advocacy for her plight throug h an unconventional and potentially subversive portrayal of the black Oriental slave woman. What links Benoist and power to co opt the body of the racial Other in order to elevate the Self. It is also striking 53 part of the plot to an exotic romance novel. After re 54 Nineteenth Century Art Worldwide vol. 3, no. Potrait de Ngresse Work and the Image: Work, Craft, and Labor, Visual Representations in Changing Histories edited by Valerie Maainz and Griselda Pollock, 53 66 (Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2000) and Viktoria Schmidt Guilhelmine Slave Portraiture in the Atlantic World edited by Anges Lugo Ortiz and Angela Rosenthal (NY: Cambridge University Press, 2013).

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295 Ngresse An African Slave Woman interrupt the traditional image of African women as accessory or aesthetic foil to their white exoticized mistress. The Orientalist trope, deployed with frequency by Je an Lon Grme, is illustrated in his 1870 Moorish Bath (Figure 6 11), which features a nude ivory skinned Arab or Turkish woman being tended to by a semi nude muscular and subservient African woman within an exotic bath embellished with Iznik tiles and th e presence of a hookah pipe as signifiers that locate the scene Although the black women portrayed by Benoist and Rix do not perform an overtly to define An African Slav e Woman directly links the woman to her subservient status and bondage, reinforcing her submissive little to no recourse or ag ency in how their bodies would be represented. Their portrayals had It is a typical c olonialist picture in that the artist who created it made use of the racialized Other to define and empower the colonizing Self. That is, the portrait through the racial and national and cultural identities of artists who speak through and for the Other 55 55 5.

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296 Despite being created more than a century apart, these images fashioned by white women of privilege, are yoked together through the arc of patriarchy, colonialism, and slavery that endured hese systems of power is manifest in the unresolved contradictions of and An African Slave Woman This claim ambiguity, struggle, and neurotic exchange of power played out between colonizer and colonized a state of affairs that has become an all too expected feature of racial and cultural 56 ous willingness to exercise her white western gaze over the black subjugated body of a woman that was in distress. On the surface it appears that Rix was complic it in exploiting the African woman for her aesthetic gain and artistic status, but her images also resist mimicking the well worn trope of African servant as an accessory or an aesthetic complement t o her white mistress. Alternatively, Rix portrayed the wo man as a monumental figure and subject with emotional complexity in her own right. It is noteworthy that the artist chose these images, out of the many sketches she completed in Morocco in 1914, to submit with her account of working in the Soko to the Inte rnational Studio knowing that they would reach a wide audience. I would like to think that Rix viewed her images of subjugation as an agent of consciousness to the West, making visual the continued practice of slavery. Unfortunately, the artist published these images as evidence of her experience in colonial Morocco, without articulating her position, or desires, as being clearly sympathetic to, or exploitative of her subject, leaving the sketches unsatisfying and unresolved documents in her mimicry of mal e colonial discourse. 56 Ibid., 6.

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297 gender, and racial hierarchies the artist attempted to navigate in Morocco and the necessity of e of mimicry. 57 it remains locked with 58 Mimicry alone does not automatically produce a subversive outcome, to effectively undermine phallocentric norms, Rix had to perform parodic slippages that were self conscious, which I see as lacking or perhaps not adequately articulated in her depiction of the African woman. assert her identity as an artist, even if it involves the exploitation of Others. In considering women suggests that instead of interpreting the work of prod 59 reproducing Orientalist tropes in an attempt to undermine the phallocentric economy of Belle poque art, but in doing so her complicity in performing Orientalism con tributes to the 60 As would argue, Rix used the Orient to 57 Colonial Fantasies 66. 58 Ibid., 65. 59 Bhabha, The Location of Culture 96. 60 Colonial Fantasies 94.

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298 61 Hysterically Defining the Self by Masquerading as the Other While the escaped slave held in the French Consulate had little choice in her procurement as a model, Rix was able to convince several local women in Morocco to sit for her. Despite the non threatening perception of her gender, acquiring models, especially female models was challenging due to both gender and religious prohibitions. Even when Hilda was able to convince female subjects to sit for her, Elsie Rix spoke of them disparagingly. Today an Arab girl of about 18 years a naughty one I guess for no self respecting Arab w oman would pose. Today she brought a friend and oh they were queer and got. 62 Hindered by the weather and unable to find what she deemed as adequate or consistent models, Hilda Rix turned to her sister to pose disguised as a variety of Oriental types. The Rix empting to pass as Arab women, often fooling the hotel staff and their travel companions. 63 In a letter to Elizabeth, Elsi e conveyed that Hilda dressed not just in Arab nal clothing, but boy today she looked so fine just 61 Colonial Fantasies 93. 62 Hilda Rix letter to Elizabeth Rix from Tangier, dated March 21, 1914. Hilda Rix Nic holas Papers, MS 8917. 63 the Jarres servant, came up stairs then I laughed at him and Oh he jumped entrez and I came in she asked and then I laughed. And she knew me o I was till I laughed. I wish I had played a comedy I could have kept it Miss Goodwin came in too and they thought I looked splendid. They wanted me to show th e Cannon but I got shy. Later tw o Spanish maids saw me and I 28, 1914. Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS9817.

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299 64 Their collaborative masquerade drew upon a lifelong penchant (Figure 4 orts to organize ftes and plays throughout their travels, including productions aboard the SS Runic en route to Europe and in the artistic community of taples As evidenced by the ambiguity and ambivalence in An African Slave W oman (Figure 6 8) and A Neg ro Woman Morocco (Figure 6 9) instead of resist the prevailing ideology and stereotypes of patriarchal art when not performed in a conscious and reflective manner. In an effort to define a space for herself a s an artist within dominant art, Rix devised a new strategy that involved the collaboration of her sister, to create highly self reflective and deliberate imagery intended not just to mimic and parody Orientalist fantasy and stereotypes, but as an expressi on of her subjectivity and desire. In this process, Rix of the male artist and Orientalist Self Same. t documents their Oriental masquerade is Camouflage (Figure 6 12). Rix portrayed her sister as a Muslim woman, first outlining her veiled contours in black charcoal, and then by animating the image with sketchy blocks of bold color to translate the red, ye llow, and blue patterning of the hijab. Elsie Rix wears a white veil that covers her face in a similar fashion to the haik or white niqab included in Arab Women at Market (Figure 6 7 ). This image may be indebted to the previous sketch as Elsie shares in an exchange of gaze with the artist that bears resemblance to the connection made with the principal female figure in the Soko drawing 64 Elsie Rix letter to Elizabeth Rix from Tangier, wri Rix Nicholas, MS9817.

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300 looking and pictorial translation, whic h created a communal economy of gazes between the displaces the male gaze, situating it outside a self contained circuit of reciprocal female glances, thereby dis rupting the traditional power men exercised in looking and possessing. the authority of his gaze, which grants him ownership over th e Orient and the female body as the maker and foremost viewer. Accordingly, as the maker of this image and its first viewer, it could be argued that Hilda Rix created a feminine alternative of Orientalism, or at least one that was intended to be accommodat ing and inviting for a female audience. Camouflage is also related to Women at Market in that it serves as a self conscious alternative or inversion to the misogynist fantasy of the harem or Turkish bath. In portraying her sister, a white western bourgeo is woman as a Maghrebian Muslim woman, Rix adopted a strategy frequently employed by male Orientalists in populating their harem and bath scenes with European models. While male artists did this out of necessity, as no western man would ever be given licen collaboration with Elsie as not simply practical, but subversive in its hysterical mimicry of male Oriental practices. The image that Rix created is antithetical to the highly sexualized European woman as nude odalisque or concubine. As in Women at Market the artist employed the veil as an Oriental signifier to protect rather then reveal the female body. The collaborative masquerade oy male artistic strategies, but also to disrupt the authority of these images.

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301 The connection between clothing or costume as a signifier of identity is meaningful as Camouflage ege to 65 There is no doubt that the Rix sisters did possess a degree of authority in their economic privilege to purc hase Oriental clothing and accessories in Morocco and their subsequent use of these garments to perform exotic alter identities. The possession not of the Arabs themselves, but their exotic garments, illustrates the off otherness, while also quite literally possessing, through appropriation of the veil is significant as a symbol of resistance, protection, and barrier fr om the colonial male gaze. veil subjet petit a the object of desire they could not penetrate and under which they believed the Orient hid its mysterious and potentially subversive nature. 66 In Camouflag e Elsie i s depicted suggestively touching the veil she wears, a garment that hijab draws attention to the veil as a sign, highlighting its power to mask and protect, but also the garment that transforms her identity suggests a self awareness and reflexivity of this masquerade as a strategy of subverting and asserting identity by manip ulating the binaries of Self/Other, Occident/Orient. The artist and theorist Mary Kelly argues that the practice of masquerade 65 pictures of Elsie dressed up was the idea that Arabs had been dressed down, their identity absorbed by European 66 Colonial Fantasies 39 and 49.

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302 Impinges on the cultural order as a mode of conscious acting out; a performance masquerade effectively maneuvers between the compression of the signified and the endless deferral of the signifier, by articulating the body as a language by making it visible, sometimes subversively so. 67 squerade undermined the categories of fixed identity and manipulated what these categories signified, allowing Hilda Rix to create new meaning. The deliberate and collaborative performance undertaken to create Camouflage offered the artist the opportunity to push beyond mimicry and parody to parler through hysteria, Irigary argues, that women become speaking subjects allowing them to express desire that is outside the male framework, accommodating for the expr 68 speak and listen outside the readymade grid s of phallocentric language: In other words, the issue is not one of elaborating a new theory of which women would be the subject or the object but of jamming the theoretical machinery itself, of suspending its pretention to the production of a truth and of a meaning that are excessively univocal. Which presupposes that women do not aspire simply to be me 69 70 through their masquerade the Rix sisters appropriated an othe rness that is not their own, displacing and collapsing the normative binaries of Self/Other, Man/Woman, Occident/Orient. It was through her Oriental otherness that Rix found not subjugation but empowerment. 67 Mary Kelly, Imaging Desire (Cambri dge, MA: MIT Press, 1996), 204. 68 Irigaray, This Sex Which is Not One 222. 69 Ibid., 78. 70 Colonial Fantasies 93.

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303 As Mary Sheriff demonstrated in her analysis of Jean the mode of turquerie and Nebahat Avcio lu s study of the portrait of the deposed Polish monarch, a sultan, the fabrication of an Oriental identity was far more serious than mere playful m asquerade. 71 lu recognized that in assuming an Oriental identity, an itinerant artist, as well as a king without a kingdom to rule over, could forge a sense of he O Sheriff highlights how the interplay of text and image, or title and signs, work in tandem to create meaning. In Camouflage Rix manipulated masculine visual and textual codes to undermine their logic and authority. The title and image of Camouflage push and pull at one another, wo perceived authenticity, as it was sketched on site in Morocco deploying the visual language of realism and confident mark making, and the title, Camouflage, which indicat es that this figure is hiding something or that she is not what she appears to be. The title underscores the artifice of this particular image, but also acts as an accusation, which interrogates the extensive history of Oriental nudes it challenges. The in congruences of text and image signal the contradictions and instability of identity within the image. Rix called upon her sister and the cross cultural reference of the hijab and haik to destabilize and transgress racial, religious, and colonial identity, and the places named, and to what each reveals and masks. Suspended in this matrix is the 71 Etienne Cultural Contact and the Making of European Art since the Age of Exploration edited by Mary Sheriff, 97 122 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2010) and Nebahat lu, 'Turquerie' and the Polit ics of Representation, 1728 1876 (Farnham: Ashgate, 2011).

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304 rough repeated instances of cultural engagement and 72 It is within the self conscious engagement and disengagement, and the imitation of and differentiation from patriarchal models where Rix struggled to create a new place for herself in Belle poque art through appropriating its visual language, but using it to speak subversively outside the preordained structures of fine art, a process subversive on the condition th at the naturalized gender codes are critically reflected upon. The re articulation, re working and re signification of the discursive characteristics of phallocentricism can open the possibility of an in between ambivalent zone where the agency of the fema le subject can be 73 It was in a re worked or Third Space, in between Australia, France, and Morocco, where Hilda Rix found herself and became an Artist. The 1912 and 1914 expedition s to Morocco were significant to Rix The arti st held her first solo show in Paris on November of 1912 at the Galerie J. Chaine and Simonson Gallery. The exhibition included forty five paintings and drawi ngs in crayon and charcoal made during her time in Morocco. The exhibition earned Rix accolades an d her first real international success. This achievement was multiplied in December when the French government purchased the canvas, Grand march, Tanger for the Muse du Luxembourg a work that was also selected for exhibition by the Socit des Peintres Orientalistes Franais in 1912 her honor. 74 On December 5, 1912 the artists of the Socit Artistique de Picardie came together 72 73 Colonial Fantasies 66 74 The French state acquired the Great Market of Tangiers (Grand Marc h de Tanger).

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305 but also enshrined Henry Tanner as the guest of honor, as recognition was created. 75 75

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306 Figure 6 1 Emanuel Phillips Fox, Street in Morocco ca. 1911. 16 x 22 cm. Private Collection. Figure 6 2 Hilda Rix Nicholas, Moroccan loggia 1912. Oil on canvas on board, 25 x 21 cm. National Gallery of Art, Canberra, ACT.

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307 Figure 6 3 Hilda Rix Nicholas, Through the arch to the sea 1912 1914. Oil on board, 33.5 x 25 .5 cm. Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, SA. Figure 6 4 Ethel Carrick Fox, Moroccan Street ca. 1911. Oil on panel, 26.5 x 35 cm. Private Collection.

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308 Figure 6 5 Hilda Rix Nicholas, Marchands de charbon de bois ( The Charcoal Sellers), 1912 Colored pencil, pen and ink on paper, 37.5 x 27 cm National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT. Figure 6 6 Photograph of Hilda Rix sketching in the Grand Socco, Tangier, 1914. Unknown photographer (possibly a Miss Goodwin).

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309 Figure 6 7 Hild a Rix Arab Women at Market, 1912 1914. Colored crayons and charcoal on paper, 37.2 x 27.2 cm. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT. Figure 6 8 Hilda Rix Nicholas, An African Slave W oman, 19 14. Colored pencils on paper, 3 4 x 37.8 cm Gallery o f New South Wales, Sydney, NSW.

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310 Figure 6 9 Hilda Rix Nicholas, A Negro Woman Morocco, 1914. Colored pencils on paper, location unknown. Reproduced in black and white in the International Studio (Nov. 1914) Figure 6 10 Marie Guillemine Benoist, Portrait d'une ngresse 1800. Oil on canvas, 81 x 65 c m. Muse du Louvre, Paris.

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311 Figure 6 11 Jean Lon Grme, Moorish Bath 1870. Oil on canvas, 50.8 x 40.6 cm Museum of Fine Arts, Boston MA Figure 6 12 Hilda Rix Nicholas, Camouflage 19 14. Colored pencil or crayon wit h black charcoal on paper, 38 x 28 cm. National G allery Australia, Canberra AC T.

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312 CHAPTER 7 CONCLUSION The End of the Belle poque: Tragedy and Transformation The decades preceding the First World War witnessed dramatic sh ifts in the intellectual, economic, cultural, and pol itical systems that structured w estern society, inspiring artists to respond to these transformations and conflicts in diverse and multifarious ways. The tensions fostered by the expansion and dismantlin g of empires and alliances culminated in the near global conflict of World War One. For Hilda Rix and Henry Tanner, the sense of artistic triumph and fulfillment that came with the success of their Moroccan expeditions would be short lived. The picturesque and peaceful existence the artists shaped for themselves in the t aples community was destroyed by the war. Marcia Mathews described in frank terms the devastation the artists an d local community would endure: T ime was running out for the artists of Trpi The First World War, a disaster of pheno menal proportions, was about to shatter not only the tranquility of Trpied, but of the world as they knew it. 1 When France and England declared war on Ger many at the beginning of August 1914, many American artists left the taples colony at the first opportunity The Tanners were hesitant to abandon Trpied, as they considered it and France their hom e. Additionally, a s the president of the Socit Artistique de Picardie, Henry had invested much of his time and energy that which was scheduled to open in August in Le Touquet. 2 With the outbrea k of war, art was no longer a priori ty. Five days after the opening, local officials closed the exhibition because the building was needed to house refugees. 3 1 Mathews, Henry Ossawa Tanner, American Artist 151. 2 Ibid.,153. 3 Ibid.

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31 3 Tanners were forced to evacuate, hastily departing , for England on August 28, 1914 4 They made the crossing just befor e the German army occ upied nearby Amiens on August 30. artistic homes, the gardens filled with flowers, the orchards loaded with fruit, the studios with the unfinished canvases, were left to the mercy of the marauding peasant or the devastating 5 T wo weeks later, Henry Tanner returned to tapl es leaving his family safe in England. He visited the art colony to assess the damage to their community and salvage what he co uld from the studios abandoned by fellow artists. Tanner was so affected by the conflict that he could not bring himself to paint creating very few works between 1914 and 1918. His biographer, conflict stating: 6 In the draft of a letter intended for his longti me friend and supporter, Atherton Curtis written shortly after his return to Trpied, that artist attempted to convey his current state of despair and the triviality of art in the face of such a great conflict and loss The Germans are on the retreat, Amiens evacuated etc. soon you can work say some of my friends but how can I? What right have I to do, what right to be 4 The Tanners chose to stay in Rye opposed to London, as it was less crowded and far less expensive. Jesse Tanner recalls that the famous American author Henry James lived in Rye and had the Tanners over for tea during their brief stay in the village. Mathews, Henry Ossawa Tanner, American Artist, 154. 5 tin ued the taples community would be used for refugees and a staging area for British Imperial Army. The American artist Arnold Sl ade describes the situation in taples he war broke Naturally very litt Art and Progress, March 1915, 171. 6 Mathews, Henry Ossawa Tanner, American Artist 157.

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314 comfortable? In London I saw some of the Canadian contingent and many volunteers, fi ne, handsome, intelligent men going out to fight, to suffer and to die for principles which I believe in as strongly as they and sit down to paint a little picture, and thus make myself happy No it cannot be done. Not after what I saw many lonely wives, mothers, children, sweethearts, waiting for the return that despair puts out all light of life and this is why I cannot work. 7 Henry and Jessie Tanner spent the duration of the war in France, relocating when necessary if the front lines encroached uncomfortably close. Because of its strategic location, taples was designated as the main infantry base for the British Expeditionary Force ( BEF ) 8 Uninspired to create art, Tanner searched for ways to contribute to the war effort. In 1917, when t he United States entered the conflict the artist was fifty eight years of age barring him from enlisting in the army. Working ar ound this limitation, he developed a plan to cultivate the land around the army base and hospital located in Vitte l, France to raise livestock and produce that would sup ply the American service men and wome n recovering there, while also providing an acti vity to promote morale. 9 appointed a lieutenant in the Farm Service Bureau. During the First World War, African Americans were segregated into all black regiments a policy that continued thr ough the Second 7 The text comes from a draft of an unfinished letter almost certainly intended for Atherto n Curtis. The entirety of the letter is reproduced in Mathews, Henry Ossawa Tanner 156 157. 8 As many as 100,000 troops were located in taples during WWI making it a prime target for German aerial attacks. For their generosity in offering their homes to the war effort the community was awarded the Croix de Guerre in 1920. The taples camp is historically infamous for the September 1917 mutiny staged by AIF and NZEF officers. Additionally, taples is home to the largest Commonwealth Cemetery in France hol ding 11,500 burials. 9 and hospitals through Europe. In 1918 Tanner was promoted to assistant director of the Farm and Garden Services for the Am program the Red Cross history does not mention his contribution. Letter from the American Red Cross, Henry Ossawa Tanner Papers, 1860s 1978, bulk 1890 1937, AA A Smithsonian Institute and Mosby, Across Continents and Cultures, 66 67.

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315 World War. Henry Tanner white officers in the Red Cross and later as an official war artist, was exceptional as he was permitted to work across racial lines. 10 By September of 1918, Tanner had once again found artistic inspi ration He requested and was granted permission to sketch and paint the activities of the service men and women on the Red Cross base where he was stationed. is the depiction of black soldiers included among those con valescing at th e hospital and canteen scenes he captured Henry Tanner and the Australian artist Is o Rae were among the few from the taples community who remained in the region during the war. Tanner and Rae both produced imagery of the BEF camp and its inhabitants, w hich remain significant documents and responses to the war. 11 A canvas Tanner painted in the aftermath of World War One reflects the solemn and meditative character that would pervade his biblical scenes for the remainder of his career. Distinct from the a llegorical allusions to flight, pilgrimage, suffering, and faith that the artist focused on after the war, The Arc (Figure 7 1) deals specifically with the human loss and spiritual recuperation after this unprecedented conflict. The artist signed and dated the lower left corner of the composition, indicating that it was created on July 13, 1919, the day before the French celebration of independence, when a cenotaph was erected in memory of the French soldiers and civilians who l ost their lives during the wa r. Tanner employed his signature blue green palette to convey both the melancholy and peacefulness of this nocturnal scene. The imposing, statuesque presence of the Arc de Triomphe is juxtaposed with the ephemerality of the temporary memorial, which lay pr otected within the 10 Ibid. 68. 11 Catherine Speck, Beyond the Battlefield: Women Artists of the Two World Wars (London: Reaktion Books Ltd, 2014), 70 83.

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316 surface that reflected the moonlight in a manner reminiscent of the animated architectural surfaces of Flight into Egypt: Palais de Justice, T angier (Figure 5 6). The symbolically empty tomb is dramatically illuminated with white yellow light that radiates against the coffere d surface of the archway above. place and date with his signature in the bottom left of the composition, but also poses more immaterial aesthetic and spiritual connections with his Orientalism. The layering and weaving of pigments, the emphasis on light and spiritual associations with the col symbolic inclusion of arches and passageways as protective, but also sites of uncertainty and transience, are all interconnected with his pre war Moroccan inspired scenes. Moreover, the universality of humanity is communicated through the singular mass of people who gather before the monument to pay their respects. The crowd of people that stand in the middle ground of the composition at the base of the arch and cenotaph form a wall of am biguous individuals suggesting nothing of their race, class, gender, religious, national, or political affiliations, only their humanity and oneness in collective mourning. In the foreground, placed on opposite sides of the monumental arch, are a mother a nd d a pair of veterans in uniform (Figures 7 2 and 7 3). Hlne Valance has interpreted the juxtaposition of an archetypal widow and orphan to the left of the memorial with the two soldiers on the right as representative of the 12 Furthermore, Anna Marley suggests that the duality and 12 Modern Spirit fn 108

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317 13 Although the First World War fresh from the success of her second artistic expedition to Morocco, Hilda Rix could not have imagined how profoundly the conflict would cost her, not only in professional opportunities and adva ncement, but also with the lives of those closest to her. In April of 1914, the Rix sisters began their triumphant return to taples, eager in the Picardie exhibition that summer. Elsie and Hilda Rix reunit ed with their mother in England and then returned to the taplean artistic community at the beginning of the summer. When France declared war and ordered a partial mobilization t he Rix women decided t o pack up what they could, leaving most of their belong ing in storage in taples to join their friends in England Finding room on one of the last ships to leave France, they made the difficult crossing on August 2 1914. T he hasty evacuation and poor traveling conditions proved especially detrimental for Eliz abeth and Elsie who both contracted E nteric feve r during their escape Fearing for her Elsie hid her condition, and as a result she died suddenly on September 2 1914 In turn, in an effort not to exacerbate e artist mourned the loss of her Australia, Rix compiled her recollections of these tragic war years in writing and recounted the d eath: She told no from our mother. But when mother was a little more at ease, my sister then gave in, and I got a nurse for her and the doctor She too was ca rried away in an ambulance. Then followed two ghastly weeks of terror. I 13 Ibid., 40.

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318 flew from one to the other, trying to cheer both, and my own heart, in the terrible consciousness that at any moment one or both of my loved ones might leave this world. At the end of the next week that terrible malady, which, had we known of her brave self sacrifice, might have been stemmed and caught in time, took her to itself in death. 14 The artist spent the next seve ral months caring for her mother in London but a fter a prolonged illness, Elizabeth Rix died in March of 1916 leaving Hilda utterly devastated and alone. 15 During her time caring for her family, Rix abandoned her art. She describes her own state during this time as nd walked like an 16 In September of 1916, an Australian Imperial Force officer, Captain George Matson Nicholas, came to London searching for the internationally renowned Australian artist Hilda Rix. According to the family, Matson was stationed in taples and found Rix her abandoned studio. When on leave he sought her out in London to return these works to her. The two immediately fell in love and were married in early October. Still mourning the loss of her mother and si evident in a letter she wrote on November 15, 1916, which Matson would never receive. Oh God guard and keep you safe, Matson Your letter with news that you have gone back to the Ba ttalion has come and frightens me oh dear dear lover terrible you are in danger and I am far away oh this ghastly war. Dear husband, be brave an d splendid and always your best and love you utterly. Your wife Hilda 17 14 Account of the war years written by Hilda Rix Nicholas from Melbourne. November 1918, Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS 9817, National Library of Australia. 15 Pigot, Hilda Rix Nicholas 27 28. 16 Account of the war years written by Hilda Rix Nicholas from Melbourne. November 1918, Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS 9817, National Library of Australia reproduced in Pigot, Hilda Rix Nicholas 28. 17 Letter written by Hilda to Matson dated November 15, 1916. Account of the war years written by Hilda Rix Nicholas from Melbourne. November 1918, Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS 9817, National Library of Australia.

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319 Captain Nicholas was killed in action at Fleurs a little more than a month after their wedding. 18 Rix oth ers before they were required to return to the front. Four of the Nicholas brothers served in the AIF during the First World War. 19 have died, had I been allowed 20 With in less than two years, Hilda Rix lost her family and became a war widow. During this time, she sketched portraits of the Nicholas brothers in uniform retaining the Nicholas name t hroug hout her life. When she had the strength, Rix turned to her art recognize this series of tragedies as a tipping point, which transformed her identity and mission as an artist. 21 In May of 1918, after several near death encounters dur ing the German zeppelin raids on London, Rix made the decision to return to the safety and familiarity of Australia. 22 She arrived in Melbourne after 11 years abroad, a war widow seeking self renewal in the midst of nationalistic patriotic fervor. To make sense of the tragedy and great sacri fices she endured, Rix 18 Pigot, Hilda Rix Nicholas 28 29. 19 Mary Ellen and John Pern Nicholas of Trafalgar Victoria had a large family of seven children; si x boys and one girl. The two youngest boys were not old enough to enlist in the AIF during WWI. 20 Documented in the account of the war years written by Hilda Rix Nicholas from Melbourne. November 1918, Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS 9817, National Libra ry of Australia, reproduced in Pigot, Hilda Rix Nicholas 29. 21 Pigot, Hilda Rix Nicholas 30 32, Hoorn, Moroccan Idyll 196 Artlink (March 2015). https://www.artlink.com.au/article s/4279/meditations on loss hilda rix nicholass war/ 22 Hilda sailed back to Melbourne arriving May of 1918 with her brother in law, Frank Nicholas. He was one of the four Nicholas boys who fought in WWI. Both Frank and Athol were discharged and allowed to return to Australia due to post traumatic stress. George Matson and Byron Nicholas were both killed in action in France. I thank Alexandra Torrens, the curator of art at the National War Memorial, for this information and for her time speaking with me abou t the Nicholas family.

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320 worked to redefine her art in the Heidelberg aesthetic tradition, which now was bound to the heroic identity o f the ANZAC (Australian and New Zealand Army Corps) soldier. She found renewed purpose as an artist and Australian through her ability to document the transformation of returning soldiers into settlers yet she would never find the same acceptance or recog nition Europe A work that was created while Rix was still in England, These Gave the World Awa y, is an example of her artistic bereavement (Figure 7 4). Th e t itle is an adaptation of sacrifice and the romanticism of a youthful death. 23 Rix called upon her skills as a draftswoman to forcefully articulate the bodies of fallen AI F soldiers in the foreground of the composition. Two soldiers one of whom was modeled on the likeness of her husband, are splayed prostrate on the ridge of a barren landscape, blanketed only by the grim slate gray night sky above. The artist envisioned an existential battleground, tilting the stark topography towards the pictorial surface in a manner that forces the viewer to c onfront the bodies of the AIF soldiers and their scattered belongings with intense graphic legibility and cold sterility. In her st of WWI and WWII subjects art as quite different from that of her male compatriots and official w ar artists George Lambert, George Bell, John Longstaff, an d Arthur Streeton. 24 23 us rarer gifts than gold. These laid the world away; poured out the red, Sweet wine of youth; gave up the years to be, Of work and joy, and that unhoped serene, That men call age; and those who would have been, Their sons, they gave, their immortality. Blow, bugles, blow! They brought us, for our dearth, Holiness, lacked so long, and Love, and Pain, Honour has come back, as a king, to earth, And paid his subjects with a royal wage; And Nobleness walks in our ways again; And we have come into our heritage. 24 Speck, Beyond the Battlefield, 53 https://www.awm.gov.au /articles/encyclopedia/war_artists/ww1

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321 Hers is a very different kind of war art. It is not based on observation, which was the principle underpinning much official and commissioned war art, but on her emotional or affective response to the loss of Matson Nicholas. She was in formed of his death via a telegram and then a letter, but like all who lost loved ones in battlefield at Fle u rs in France; so she did what an artist would do, she visualised him as having died. She took the unusual step of portraying him along with another soldier lying deceased and alone on the rough terrain of a These gave the world away cold moonlit landscape, out of human reach. 25 husband, an image that rendered the human cost directly and viscerally when compared to the The Arch ally altered by the tragedies she endured during World War One After her return to Australia in 1918, she committed herself to an academic realism m odeled on the Heidelberg School; however, in this rendering of the night sky reveals t her during this dark time. In the center of the blue grey night sky, which encompasses the upper half of the composition, adding to the bleak emptiness and desolation of the scene, the pentimenti of an A sketch of this figure, now in the through how to best express her grief in this work (Figure 7 5). The drawing portra ys a ghostly female figure cloaked in swirling drapery. The angel of death stretches her arms upward and looks to the heavens with an expression that plead s the divine for mercy. To the right of the figure are two compositional sketches prefiguring her vei led placement within the canvas. Because of the dedication to realism demonstrated throughout 25 on loss hilda rix nicholass war/

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322 unique to this work. The angel of death rendered in the prepara tory sketch has been painted over with thick opaque multidirectional brushwork, which distinguishes it from the flatly painted ominous night sky. In choosing to obscure the angelic figure, Hilda, this once, invoked the power of abstraction to communicate b eyond the implicit legibility of words and images. The figure is strategies, Rix created an image that was profoundly personal, but also spoke universally to the collective sense of sacrifice and be reavement inflicted by the war. An Ambivalent Legacy Henry Tanner and Hilda Rix were raised a generation apart in very di fferent social and cultural contexts on opposite ends of the earth, yet, due to their exceptional talent and perseverance, their paths crossed briefly and brilliantly. Their diverse backgrounds shaped their individual approaches and goals in creating art, but as a result of their outsider status and struggles to negotiate their place within dominant culture, their desires and aspirations overlapped an d intersected leading them first to taples then dr awing them together in Morocco. For Tanner and Rix, Mor occo was both a dream and a mirage. As demonstrat ed in the contributions to the co lonial discourse of Orientalism uniquely satisfied thei r individual goals and desires and succee ded in advancing their careers during the firs t decades of the twentieth century. Despite these successes, both artists fell into relative obscurity after the 1920s, being excluded from major exhibitions and mainstream art historical or critical discourses. The reasons for their omission from traditio nal, canonical art history, which

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323 prevailed for much of the twentieth century, are as complex as the artists themselves, yet, also 26 The postcolonial and feminist psychoan alytic approaches adopted in this study offer a their entr y into Belle poque art, but one that also reveals the struggle and their ambivalence in attempting to work within the existing framework of a white patriarchal system Tanner and rtray the Other as a means to elevate and express their ideal Selves. The conflicted vacillation between Oriental ism and Counter Orientalism exposed the inconsistency and fissures within the Oriental discourse they sought to pa rticipate in, but also resist throug h their own corrective mimicry Tanner and Rix within this context, was regarded as a welcome contribution to the discourse of exotic otherness and western hegemony, which granted the artists a degree of cultural license, allowing them to enjoy professional success and recog nition through the 1920s. Despite the mirage of authority and the sense of place and possession they cultivated in their Orientalism as a woman and an artist of within the normative systems of white patriarchal fine art was tenuous. Their ambivalence and unsecured place in mainstream art explains, in part, why it was so easy for their accomplishments and contributio ns to be overlooked for the majority of the twentieth century. 26 Throughout his monograph of Hilda Rix Nicholas, John Pigot portrays the artist as a New Woman who was Pigot Hilda Rix Nicholas, Her Life and Art 2 and 72.

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324 Tanner and Rix represented a challenge to the mon opoly white men enjoyed over the identity of Artist, as well as the education, production, and reception of high culture. Their complex art def ied easy classification providing the necessary justification to exclude them from mainstream art historical study While individuality and unique expression were necessary attributes in achieving Modern or avant garde status evidenced by their contempora ries, Matisse, Picasso, and Kandinsky in expression and identity ultimately proved too much of an obstacle for the systemic racism and sexism of conventional art history to overlook after the 1920s. Their subsequent erasure from traditional scholarship should place for themselves and their art within the dynamic historical and social context of white patriarchal Belle poque culture t ruly was. the dominant systems of fine art highlights the strategies Rix and Tanner undertook as efforts not to deny their race or gender but to overcome its catego rical otherness. As Jackie Stacey suggested in her interpretation of Roland Barthes thoughts on di fference, Tanner and Rix sought o neither destroy difference nor to valorize it, but to multiply and disperse differences, to move towards a world where d 27 Rix and Tanner embarked on the project ethical philosopher Kwame Appiah defined : istory has given you 28 In spite of their 27 Jackie Stacey, Star gazing: Hollywood cinema and fe male spectatorship (New York: Routledge, 1994), 248. 28 life is one of constraint or the putative tensions between loyalty and impartiality, between the claims of my ties and relationships an d the The Ethics of Identity (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005), 231 232.

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325 otherness, Tanner a nd Rix did the most with the skills and individual advantages they possessed. In Morocco, Rix capitalized on her whiteness and class, performing the role of western colonizer and masquerading as the Oriental Other, confusing and subverting her own othernes s as a woman and antipodean British subject In Morocco, she and as an Artist. Her Orientalism and subsequent Aust ralian nationalistic imagery were problematic to pa triarchal art history in that they were both masculine and feminine. Furthermore, s he was an artist that freely adopted and experimented with Post Impressionist trends in Europe and North Africa, but one that was a sta u nch defende r of academic realism against the encroaching 29 Tanner equally accepted, subverted, and transgressed classifications assigned to himself and the people and subjects he chose to paint by exercising his western privilege to fabricate an Orient that was devoid of time and space, but also one that overcam e gender and racial hierarchies to insist upon the spiritual unity of humanity. This study is an effort to contribute to the existing scholarship on Henry Tanner and Hilda Rix, which seeks not to simplify their art or unproblematically advocate for their inclusion into a canonical art history. Rather, my intention is to explicate the complexity and ambivalence of their lives and the remarkable art they created before the First World War to offer a history of art that is inclusive and nuanced, allowing the artists to be both exceptional and problematic. Tanner and Rix recognized their otherness as something that was not insurmountable, but approached it through the constructive position advocated by art historian Nebahat lu to 29 In an editorial submitted to the Sydney Sun Australia, a art should express the clean freshness and vigor of our country, and decadent art, dirty paint, and lack of drawing is not the stuff to exhibit to our gra a mother and an artist, I protest and mean to fight for a better state of things. Sincere art is one weapon. Sincerity will ring clear and live through all fashions and dise ases in art when it is backed is why I feel that all artists capable of clean, strong art should offer it to the public now, who in turn many thus balance it against that so called art which displays sloppiness and lack of construction and which has a degrading Sydney Sun (February 19, 1945), 4.

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326 ontextualize otherness not as a cultural dead end burdened by an over determined sense of 30 30 as Cultural Analysis vol. 6 (2007), 1.

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327 Figure 7 1 Henry Ossawa Tanner, The Arch 1919. Oi l on canvas, 99.7 x 97 cm. Brooklyn Museum of Art, NY. Figure 7 2 Henry Ossawa Tanner, Detail of mother and c hild in The Arch 1919.

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328 Figure 7 3. Henry Ossawa Tanner, Detail of two veterans in u niform, The Arch, 1919. Figure 7 4. Hilda Rix Nich olas, These gave the world away, 1917. Oil on canvas, 127 x 97 cm. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT.

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329 Figure 7 5 Hilda Rix Nicholas, Angle of Death 1917. Charcoal and black pencil on paper, 55.5 x 38 cm. National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, ACT.

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330 LIST OF REFERENCES Ackerman, Gerald. American Orientalists Paris: ACR Edition, 1994. Adler, Kathleen, Erica Hirshler, and Barbara Weinberg, Americans in Paris 1860 1900 London: National Gallery, 2006. Alexander n American Artist Finds His Voice in Paris During the 19th Prsence Africaine Nouvelle srie, no. 171 (1er semestre 2005): 120 121. Alexander Papers: Papers of or Relating to Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859 1937), University of Pennsylvania Archives, Philadelphia, PA. Alaoui, Brahim and Delacroix, Eugne. Delacroix in Morocco: Exhibition Organized by the Institut Du Monde Arabe ... Paris, 27 September 1994 15 January 1995 Paris: Flammarion, 1994. Ambrus, Caroline. The Ladies Picture Show: Sources on a Century of Australian Women Artists Sydney, NSW: Hale & Iremonger, 1984. Astbury, Leigh Astbury. City Bushmen: the Heidelberg School and the Rural Mythology. Oxford, UK: University of Oxford Press, 1985. Magazine o f Art 21 (August 1897): 187. https://www.awm.gov.au/articles/encyclopedia/war_artists/w w1 lu, Nebahat. Turquerie and the Politics of Representation, 1728 1876 Farnham: Ashgate, 2011. Identity as Cultural Analysis vol. 6 (2007). Baade, Brian, Amber Kerr Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit edited Anna O. Marley, 157 166. LA: University of California Press, 2012. University Religion Department, 2003. Baldwin, E. F The Outlook vol. 64, no. 14 (April 7, 1900): 793 796. Beaulieu, Jill and Mary Roberts, Photography. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2002. Benjamin, Roger. Orienta list Aesthetics: Art, Colonialism, and French North Africa, 1880 1930. Berk ley: University of California Press, 2003

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331 Benjamin, Roger with Cristina Ashjian Kandinsky and Klee in Tunisia LA: University of California Press, 2015. Berger, Martin. Sight Uns een: Whiteness and American Visual Culture LA: University of California Press, 2005. Bhabha, Homi. The Location of Culture 2 nd edition. NY, Routledge, 2014. Boime, Albert. The Art of Exclusion: Representing Blacks in the Nineteenth Century. Washington, D C: Smithsonian Press, 1990. Art Bulletin 75, no. 3 (September 1993): 415 442. Henry Ossawa Tanner: M odern Spirit edited by Anna O. Marley, 135 146 (LA: University of California Press, 2012). Nineteenth Century Art Worldwide vol. 15, issue 3 (Autumn 2016). Winterthur Portfolio, vol. 33, no. 2/3 (Summer Autumn, 1998): 135 161. World Impressionism: The International Move ment 1860 1920 edited by N. Broude, 8 35. NY: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1990. Bruce, Marcus. Henry Ossawa Tanner: A Spiritual Biography NY: Crossroad Pub. Co, 2002. Smithsonian Studies in American Art vol. 2, no. 2 (spring 1988): 64 73. Burke, Janie. Australian Women Artists Richmond, VIC: Greenhouse Publications Pty Ltd, 1980. Nineteenth Century Art Worldw ide vol. 14, no. 1 (Spring 2015). Burton, Antoinette. Burdens of History: British Feminists, Indian Women, and Imperial Culture, 1865 1915 Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1994. Cage, John Cage. Color and Meaning: Art, Science, and S ymbolism. LA: University of California Press, 1999. Fine Arts Journal 25 (March 1911): 163 166.

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332 Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit edited by Anna O. Marley, 98 108. LA: University of California Press, 2012. Clark Jane and Bridget Whitelaw, Golden Summers: Heidelberg and Beyond Sydney, NSW: International Cultural Corporation of Australia, Lmtd., 1985. Coker, Gylbert and Corrine Jennings, African Amer ican Art: The Harmon and Harriet Kelley Collection San Antonio: San Antonio Museum of Art, 1994. Brush and Pencil vol. 6, no. 3 (June 1900): 103 104. Corn, Wanda M. The Color of Mood: American Tonalism 1880 1 910 San Francisco: M. H. De Young Memorial Museum and the California Palace of the Legion of Honor, 1972. Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit, edited by Anna Marl ey, 117 126. LA: University of California Press, 2102. The Art Bulletin vol. 80, no. 1 (Mar ch 1998): 67 92. Rea Modern Drama, vol. 32. no. 1. (March 1989): 58 72. Australasian Critic July 1, 1891. The Australasian Critic October 1, 1890. Dover, Cedric. American Neg ro Art. Greenwich, CT: 1960. Driskell, David, Simon Leonard, and Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Two Centuries of Black American Art. Los Angeles: LA County Museum of Art and Alfred A. Knopf, Inc, 1976. Driskell, David. Hidden Heritage: Afro American Ar t 1800 1950 Bellevue: Washington, Bellevue Art Museum, 1985. Du Bois, W.E.B. The Souls of Black Folk Mineola, NY: Dover Publications Inc., 1903, new edition 1994. The Negro Problem edited by Booker T. Washington, NY: Firewo rks Press, 1899, new edition 2015. Art, Love and Life: Ethel Carrick & E. Phillips Fox Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Queensland, Australia, 2011.

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333 Engledow, Sarah. Paris to Monaro: Pleasures from the Studio of Hilda Rix Nicholas Canberra, ACT: National Portrait Gallery, 2015. Facos, Michelle. Symbolist Art in Context. Berkley, CA: University of California Press, 2009. The Crisis vol. 27, April 1924. Fine, Elsa Honig. The Afro American Artist: A Search for Identity. NY: Holt, Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1973. Fineberg, Jonathan David. Kandinsky in Paris, 1906 1907 Ann Arbor, MI: UMI Research Press, 1984. the Art of Nineteenth Century Cultural Contact and the Making of European Art since the Age of Expansion, edited by Mary Sheriff, 123 152. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2010. Fullerton, Patricia. 'Ramsay, Hugh (1877 1 906)', Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University, http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/ramsay hugh 8150/text14243, published first in hardcopy 1988, accessed online 22 May 2018 Garb, Tamar. Sisters of the B Century Paris New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1994. Representations, no. 24 (1988): 129 155. Gill, Hln. The Language of French Orientalist Painting. Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2003. Art, Love and Life: Ethel Carrick & E. Phillips Fox Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art, Queensland, Australia, 2011. The Cambridge Companion to Delacroix edited by Beth S. Wright, 69 87. Cambridge, UK: University of Cambridge Press, 2001. us Paintings of Henry Ossawa Tanner: A Study of the American Art. vol. 6, no. 4 (Autumn 1992): 68 85. Hartingan, L.R. Sharing Traditions: Five Black Artists in Nineteenth Century America Washington, DC: 1985.

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334 Henr y Ossawa Tanner papers, 1860s 1978, bulk 1890 1937. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution. Washington, DC. Henry Ossawa Tanner File (1885 1904) Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts Archives. Philadelphia, PA. The Studio vol. 27, no. 115 (1902). Hood, William. Fra Angelic: San Marco, Florence NY: George Braziller, Inc., 1995. Hoorne, Jeanette, Melbourne, VIC : The Mieguyan Press, 2012. Hoorn, Jeanette edited, Strange Women: Essays in Art and Gender. Melbourne, VIC: University of Melbourne Press, 1994. Strange Women: Essays in Art and Gender edited by Jeanette Hoorn, 9 27, Melbourne, VIC: University of Melbourne Press, 1994. Hecate vol. 40, issue 2 (2014): 7 23. Hectate, vol. 42 (2016): 92 106. Impact of the Modern: Vernacular Modernities in Australia 1870s 1960s edited by Robert Dixon and Veronic a Kelly, 38 51. Sydney, NSW: Sydney University Press, 2008. Becoming a Woman in the Age of Enlightenment: French Art from the Horvitz Collection, edited by Melissa Hyde, Mary She riff, and Alvin Clark Jr., 87 108. Boston: The Horvitz Collection, 2017. Irigaray, Luce. This Sex Which is Not One translated by Catherine Porter. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1985. Speculum of the Other Woman translated by Gillian Gill. It haca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1985. Southern Workman vol. 29, no. 1 (Jan 1900). Johnson, Karen. Canberra, ACT: National Library of Australia, 2012.

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335 Kandinsk y, Wassily. Concerning the Spiritual in Art translated by Michael Sadler and Adrian Glew. Boston: MFA Publications, 2006. Kelly, Mary. Imaging Desire Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996. King, Leslie. Ritual and Myth: A Survey of African American Art NY: 198 2 Appiah, Kwame, The Ethics of Identity Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2005. Leininger Miller, Theresa. New Negro Artists in Paris: African American Painters and Sculptors in the City of Light 1922 1932 New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2011. Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit edited by Anna O. Marley, 147 156. LA: University of California Press, 2012. Le Paul Judy and Ch arles Guy Le Paul. Gauguin and the Impressionists at Pont Aven NY: Abbeville Press, 1987. Lesage, Jean Claude. Myron Barlow: Un peintre & son modle (1873 1937). Ennetires en Weppes: Invenit, 2012. Peintres americains en Pas de Calais: la colonie d'E taples St. Josse sur Mer: A.M.M.E. editions, 2007. Peintres Australiens taples St. Josse sur Mer: A.M.M.E editions, 2000. Henry Ossawa Tanner, Modern Spirit edited by Anna O. Marley, 87 97. LA: University of California Press, 2012. Alexander Magazine (December 15, 1908): 69 73. Leverton, Edith Waldemar Leverton. "Paris Ateliers". Lady's Realm: An Illustrated Monthly Magazine vol. 8, (May/October 1 900) 580 83. Lewis, Reina. Gendering Orientalism: Race, Femininity, and Representation NY: Routledge, 1996. Cultural Reiterations: Demetra Vaka Brown and the Performance of Performing the Body/Performing the Text edited by Amelia Jones and Andrew Stephenson, 56 75. NY: Routledge, 1999. Locke, Alain. The Negro in Art; A Pictorial Record of the Negro artist and of the Negro theme in art NY : Hacker Art Books, Inc., 1940, reprinted in 1971. Lorde, Audre Lorde. Sister Outsider: Essays and Speeches by Audre Lorde Berkley, CA: Crossing Press, 2007.

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336 Lowe, Lisa. Critical Terrains: French and British Orientalisms Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1991. International St udio vol. 50, no. 197 (July 1913): 11 15. International Studio vol. 54 (Nov. 1914): 24 Marley, Anna O., edited. Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2012. Mathews, Mar cia M. Henry Ossawa Tanner: American Artist Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1969 reprinted 1994. McElroy, Guy, Richard J. Powell, Sharon F. Patton, David C. Driskell. African American Artists 1880 1987, Selections from the Evan Tibbs Collection Wa shington DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1989. The Search for Artistic Professionalism in Melbourne: the activities of the Buonarotti Club, 1883 No. 88 (December 2011) http://latrobejournal.slv.vic.gov.au/latrobejournal/issue/latro be 88/t1 g t16.html Mills, Sara. Discourses of Difference: an Analysis of Women's Travel Writing and Colonialism NY: Routledge, 1991. Milner, John. The Studio of Paris: The Capital of Art in the late Nineteenth Century New Haven, CT: Yale University Pre ss, 1988. New December 6, 1907. Mosby, Dewey. Across Continents and Cultures: The Art and Life of Henry Ossawa Tanner Kansas City, MO : Nelson Atkins Museum of Art, 1995. Mosby, Dewey, Darrel Sewell, and Rae Alexander Minter. Henry Ossawa Tanner Philadelphia : Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1991. 41, no. 2120 (August 7, 1897): 780. Sydney Sun February 19, 1945. Daily Telegraph June 9, 1927. The Politics of Vision: Essays on Nineteenth Century Art and Societ y edited by L. Nochlin, 33 59. NY: Harpers and Row Publishers, 1989.

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337 Women, Art, and Power and Other Essays edited by L Nochlin, 145 178. NY: Harper and Row Publishers, 1988. Pai Buick, Kirsten. Chil Black and Indian Subject Durham, NC: D uke University Press 2010. Papers of Hilda Rix Nicholas, MS 9817, National Library of Australia, Canberra, ACT. Patton, Sharon. African American A rt NY: Oxford University Press, 1998. Pennell, Joseph. The Adventures of an Illustrator, Mostly in Following his Authors in America and Europe. Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1925. Pigot, John. Capturing the Orient: Hilda Rix Nicholas and Ethel Carrick i n The East Waverley, VIC: Waverly City Gallery, 1993. in Strange Women: Essays in Art and Gender, edited by Jeanette Hoorn, 155 168. Melbourne, VIC: Melbourne University Pre ss, 1994. Strange Women: Essays in Art and Gender edited by Jeanette Hoorn, 53 64. Melbourne, VIC: Melbourne University Press, 1994. Journal of Australian Studies vol. 32 (March 1992): 27 33. The Art Bulletin, vol. 81, no. 3 (Sept. 1999): 533 538. Pohl, F rances. Framing America NY: Thames and Hudson, 2008. Porter, James. Modern Negro Art NY: Arno Press, 1969. Powell, Richard. Black Art : A Cultural History NY: Thames and Hudson, 2002. talists, 1880 Orientalism: Delacroix to Klee edited by Roger Benjamin, 41 53. Sydney, NSW: Art Gallery of New South Wales, 1997. International Studio vol. 54 (November 1914): 35 41. Roberts, Mary. Intimate Ou tsiders: The Harem in Ottoman and Orientalist Art and Travel Literature Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007. Robinson, Hilary. Reading Art, Reading Irigary: The Politics of Art by Women I.B. Tauris: NY 2006. Said, Edward. Orientalism. NY : Vintage Bo oks, 1978.

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338 Sayers, Andrew. Australian Art NY: Oxford University Press, 2001. Southern Workman XXXI, 1902, 665 666. Signs of Grace: Religion and Am erican Art in the Gilded Age Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2008. ReVisioning: Critical Methods of Seeing Christianity in the History of Art ed. James Romaine and Linda Stratford, 277 294. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books, 2013. Cultural Contact and the Making of European Art since the Age of Exploration edite d by Mary Sheriff, 97 122. Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2010. A Study of the Development of an American Negro Artist 1859 Si Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit, edited by Anna O. Marley, 69 78. LA: University of California Press, 2012. ty and Elision in African American Art Historical Art Documentation vol. 13, no. 1 (Spring 1994): 3 8. Nineteenth Century Art Worldwide vol. 3, no. 1 (Spring 2 004). Smith, Bernard. Taste, Place and Tradition: A Study of Australian Art since 1788, 2 nd edition NY: Oxford University Press, 1979. Nineteenth Century Art Worldwide vol. 8, no. 2 (Autumn 2009). Response: Reply to George Affirming Blackne A Missing Question Mark: The Unknown Henry Nineteenth Century Art Worldwide vol. 10, no. 1 (Spring 2011). World Impressionism: The International Movement 1860 1920 edited by N. Broude, 114 135. N Y: Harry N. Abrams, Inc., 1990. Speck, Catherine. Beyond the Battlefield: Women Artists of the Two Wo rld Wars London: Reaktion Books Ltd, 2014. PORTAL vol. 10, no. 2 (July 2013).

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341 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH Laura Winn was born and raise d in Wil mington, Massachusetts. She completed her BFA in photo graphy with departmental honors in 2003 and in 2007 a Master of Arts in Teac hing in Integrated Learning and Educational Technology from Jacksonville Unive rsity in Florida. Laura went on to pursue a mast in Ancient Art an d Archaeology the spring of 2011 The fall of 2012 she began the doctoral pr ogram in Art History at Florida specializing in eighteenth and nineteenth century Europea n a rt and criticism. During her doctoral program Laura was awarded the James J. Rizzi scholarship and the Jerry Cutler travel award for her research I n 2018 she earned her doctoral degree and a Studies from the University of Florida