CC0 · no rights reserved
Study for Christ and Nicodemus on a Rooftop
From the collection of Smithsonian American Art Museum. Free to download, adapt and use — no permission needed.
About this work
This study for Christ and Nicodemus on a Rooftop made Henry Ossawa Tanner's reputation. The story of Nicodemus visiting Christ at night spoke to African American worship habits that Tanner remembered from his youth: After emancipation, freed slaves continued to meet at night, as they had done when their masters had forbidden them to read the Bible (Mosby, Henry Ossawa Tanner, 1991).
Smithsonian American Art Museum’s own descriptionSubjects
Credit lineStudy for Christ and Nicodemus on a Rooftop. ca. 1923. 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.
