06/16/2026
It’s Street Scene, Tangier (Crenelated Architecture) by Henry Ossawa Tanner for today’s ArtMart!
I picked this one for two reasons. The World Cup is happening, and I am a super world soccer fan, so I wanted to pick a painting that represented one of the teams. In this case, Morocco. With the expanded tournament, Africa got to send a record 10 teams this year, and they have been🔥. Morocco, Egypt, and Cape Verde kept Brazil, Belgium, and Spain to a draw so far, and Cote D’Ivoire won their match. Senegal plays France tomorrow, but you know I’m a France fan, so Allez les Bleus!
We also have Juneteenth this week, so I wanted to celebrate a Black artist, in this case, Henry Ossawa Tanner. Tanner faced racism and prejudice throughout his career, moving to Paris in 1891. He felt he could not achieve his full artistic potential while also fighting discrimination in America. It was in Paris where he painted one of his most important works, The Banjo Lesson, wherein a Black man is teaching a young Black boy to play the banjo. Tanner’s painting Sand Dunes at Sunset, Atlantic City was the first painting by a Black artist to be bought for the White House’s permanent collection. It was bought in 1996, 130 years after General Granger landed in Galveston on June 19th, 1865 and confirmed that enslaved African Americans were now free. This was a full two and a half years after the Emancipation Proclamation and two and a half months after the end of the Civil War.
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Find the vintage in our shop and Tanner’s Street Scene at The Smithsonian American Art Museum in DC!
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