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Head of a Jew in Palestine
From the collection of Smithsonian American Art Museum. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
Henry Ossawa Tanner used the local people as models in his religious paintings during his trips to the Middle East and North Africa. He may have used this portrait for the figure of Nicodemus in Nicodemus Visiting Jesus, painted in Jerusalem in 1898. This old but dignified man made quite an impression on Tanner, who later wrote, “I still remember with pleasure the fine head of the old Yemenite Jew who posed for Nicodemus.”
Smithsonian American Art Museum’s own descriptionSubjects
Credit lineHead of a Jew in Palestine. 1899, reworked ca. 1918-1920. Henry Ossawa Tanner, born Pittsburgh, PA 1859-died Paris, France 1937. Smithsonian American Art Museum, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Norman Robbins. CC0.
