Street Scene, Tangiers

Tanner was captivated by North Africa, particularly the Moroccan port of Tangiers; he was, as a visiting journalist noted, "tempted by the beauty of that unspoiled seaport town, with its entrancing mosques, alleys and narrow streets, its pink, pale mauve and ivory colored plaster houses, and its picturesque people."[1]  Tangiers had long been a site of exploration for European painters interested in places and peoples they categorized as picturesque and exotic, among them Tanner's French teachers--although as a Black American, Tanner's own position relative to their practice of Orientalism remains ambiguous.[2]  Tanner may have used photographs of the architecture of Tangiers for earlier etchings and sketches, but he spent several months in the city in the spring of 1912, at just the moment France established its protectorate in Morocco, a colonial regime that lasted until 1956.  During his stay, Tanner painted numerous views of the city's ancient alleys and gateways; he displayed several of his Tangiers canvases, perhaps including this street scene, in his solo exhibition at the Thurber Art Galleries in Chicago in 1913.

The precise location of Tanner's street is unknown; it is probably one of the many arched passageways in the area around the market, where he painted a number of other views.  His lack of specificity and the traditional garb of the figures enhance the timeless nature of his scene, which could represent either a modern-day interlude or a vision of biblical times.  Tanner's technique, with its veils of opalescent color built up with a palette knife, gives the impression of a layered past, a mystical place where past and present coexist.

[1] Clara MacChesney, "A Poet-Painter of Palestine," International Studio 50 (July 1913): xii, xiv.

[2] See Adrienne L. Childs, "Tanner and 'Oriental' Africa," in Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit, ed. Anna O. Marley, exh. cat. (Philadelphia: Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, 2012), pp. 98-105.

Erica E. Hirshler, adapted from her entry in Lowery Stokes Sims et al., Common Wealth: Art by African Americans in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Boston: MFA Publications, 2015.