|
== Description ==
''The Thankful Poor'' depicts an old man and a young boy—perhaps a grandfather and his grandson{{sfn|Wilson|1992|p=40}}—at a table, praying before their meal. To the left, the scene's only source of light comes from the window with sheer curtains behind the old man.{{sfn|Alexander-Minter|2005|p=130}} The old man sits on a high-backed chair with his elbows on the table and his hands clasped before his face in prayer. Across from the old man, the boy sits on a low bench or crate, one hand held to his head in an effort to emulate the man's prayerful pose.{{sfn|Boime|1993|p=424}}{{sfn|Wilson|1992|pp=39–40}} The table is set with a tablecloth, two white plates and cups, a large white pitcher, cutlery, and small portions of food.{{sfn|Alexander-Minter|2005|p=130}}{{sfn|Wilson|1992|pp=39–40}} The painting is signed, dated, and titled to the lower left: "H.O. TANNER / 1894 / The Thankful Poor".{{sfn|Art Bridges}} The reverse contains an early study for his 1895 painting ''[[The Young Sabot Maker]]''.{{sfn|Taylor|2020|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|h4T3DwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PT45 37]}}
The composition possibly draws inspiration from American artist [[Elizabeth Nourse]]'s 1891 painting ''Le Repas en Famille (The Family Meal)'', which shares a similar setting.{{sfn|Taylor|2020|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|h4T3DwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PT36 28]}} Nourse's painting depicts a French peasant family gathered around a table,{{sfnm|1a1=Sewell|1a2=Mosby|1y=1991|1pp=[https://archive.org/details/henryossawatanne0000unse/page/123 123–124]}} a scene that would be familiar to Tanner since he spent his time in France painting in the [[Brittany]] countryside where local peasants were among his favorite subjects.{{sfnm|1a1=Sewell|1a2=Mosby|1y=1991|1p=[https://archive.org/details/henryossawatanne0000unse/page/120 120]}} Since ''Le Repas en Famille'' was exhibited at the 1893 [[World's Columbian Exposition]] where it won a gold medal, Tanner could have seen the painting when he visited Chicago that year to present a lecture at the World's Congress on Africa.{{sfn|Taylor|2020|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|h4T3DwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PT36 28]}}{{sfn|Woods|2011|p=894}} There are also clear parallels in European art, such as [[Jan Steen]]'s 1660 painting ''The Prayer Before the Meal''.{{sfn|Taylor|2020|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|h4T3DwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PT36 28]}}
<gallery mode="packed" heights="240px">
== Background ==
[[File:Portrait of Henry Ossawa Tanner.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|alt=Man with a mustache wearing glasses and a suit|[[Henry Ossawa Tanner]] in 1909]]
Tanner's parents valued education, and these views informed his work.{{sfn|Taylor|2020|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|h4T3DwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PT37 29]}} Both graduated from [[Avery College]], managed schools, and ensured Tanner himself received a rigorous education.{{sfn|Taylor|2020|pp=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|h4T3DwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PT37 29–30]}} Tanner's father [[Benjamin Tucker Tanner]] was a bishop in the [[African Methodist Episcopal Church]] (AME);{{sfn|Wilson|1992|p=35}} the denomination encouraged education among African Americans, and founded colleges.{{sfn|Taylor|2020|pp=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|h4T3DwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PT37 29–30]}} Tanner was further influenced by family friend and educator [[Booker T. Washington]], with whom he shared the belief that skills that could support a living should be passed from one generation to another.{{sfn|Taylor|2020|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|h4T3DwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PT38 30]}} Race was another factor that impacted Tanner: he was influenced by his father's work, which included lectures on racial identity and church sermons that underscored a sense of racial injustice.{{sfn|Boime|1993|p=417}}{{sfn|Mosby|1995|p=32}}
Beginning in the summer of 1888, Tanner spent time in [[Highlands, North Carolina|Highlands]], [[North Carolina]], in the [[Blue Ridge Mountains]] where he hoped to earn a living through photography and improve his health.{{sfn|Smithsonian American Art Museum}} In 1889, he started a photography shop in [[Atlanta]], [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]],{{sfn|Taylor|2020|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|h4T3DwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PT35 27]}} but returned in the summer to Highlands where he took photographs of local African Americans.{{sfnm|1a1=Sewell|1a2=Mosby|1y=1991|1p=[https://archive.org/details/henryossawatanne0000unse/page/119 119]}} ''The Thankful Poor'' and an earlier painting, ''[[The Banjo Lesson]]'', both seem to be based on the same people Tanner had photographed in that period{{sfn|Woods|2017|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|skUrDwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA79 79]}} before he moved to Paris in 1891.{{sfn|Taylor|2020|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|h4T3DwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PT35 27]}} Both paintings were made after Tanner returned to the United States in the summer of 1893 to recuperate from [[typhoid fever]]{{sfn|Wilson|1992|p=38}} but before he returned to Paris in 1894.{{sfn|Taylor|2020|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|h4T3DwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PT33 25]}}{{sfn|Pinder|1997|p=229}}
For ''The Thankful Poor'', he made an oil on canvas study ({{circa|1894}}), now in the [[DuSable Museum of African American History]] in [[Chicago]].{{sfn|Mosby|1995|p=32}}{{sfn|Google Arts & Culture}}
=== Tanner's depictions of African Americans ===
[[File:Henry Ossawa Tanner - The Banjo Lesson.jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.8|alt=A boy holding a banjo seated on an old man's lap|''[[The Banjo Lesson]]'' (1893)]]
When Tanner returned to the United States in July 1893, he found that race relations had not improved during the previous two years. Particularly moved by the increasing number of [[lynching in the United States|lynching]]s of African Americans, Tanner became involved in the [[civil rights movement (1865–1896)|civil rights movement]],{{sfn|Woods|2017|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|skUrDwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA72 72]}} and scholars believe he grew more racially aware.{{sfn|Woods|2017|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|skUrDwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA74 74]}} He turned towards African-American subject matters for his [[genre painting]]s, becoming the first African American to do so.{{sfnm|1a1=Sewell|1a2=Mosby|1y=1991|1p=[https://archive.org/details/henryossawatanne0000unse/page/120 120]}} Previous artistic depictions of African Americans mainly came from white painters, but Tanner considered many of these interpretations to be lacking.{{sfnm|1a1=Sewell|1a2=Mosby|1y=1991|1p=[https://archive.org/details/henryossawatanne0000unse/page/120 120]}}{{sfn|Woods|2017|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|skUrDwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA75 75]}} Thus, he decided to use his intimate knowledge of the subject to paint his own scenes of African-American life.{{sfn|Woods|2017|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|skUrDwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA75 75]}} Tanner himself wrote in the third person that:
{{Blockquote
|text=Since his return from Europe he [Tanner] has painted mostly Negro subjects, he feels drawn to such subjects on account of the newness of the field and because of the desire to represent the serious, and pathetic side of life among them, and it is his thought that other things being equal, he who has the 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 the sympathy with and appreciation for the warm big heart that dwells within such a rough exterior.{{sfn|Taylor|2020|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|h4T3DwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PT39 31]}}{{sfn|Boime|1993|p=419}}{{efn-ua|This handwritten statement was written by Tanner likely between 1893 and 1894.{{sfn|Taylor|2020|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|h4T3DwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PT46 38]}} The note is in the files of the [[Pennsylvania School for the Deaf]].{{sfn|Boime|1993|p=419}}}}
}}
Tanner's first major genre work featuring African Americans was ''The Banjo Lesson'',{{sfn|Boime|1993|p=423}}{{efn-ua|Tanner may have made sketches and paintings during the summer of 1889, including a genre scene of "an old colored man taking his little cotton to market on a rattletrap ox-cart" that predates ''The Banjo Lesson'', but these paintings have yet to be found.{{sfnm|1a1=Sewell|1a2=Mosby|1y=1991|1p=[https://archive.org/details/henryossawatanne0000unse/page/119 119]}}}} which he completed by October 1893.{{sfn|Woods|2017|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|skUrDwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA77 77]}} The painting's depiction of a young boy being taught to play the [[banjo]] by an old man{{sfn|Boime|1993|p=423}} undermines the banjo's popular association with simplistic [[Minstrel show#Black minstrels|black minstrels]] by instead portraying a "genuine sharing of black cultural tradition."{{sfn|Woods|2017|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|skUrDwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA77 77]}} Some critics seemed unaware of Tanner's intention to subvert conventional stereotypes of African Americans.{{sfn|Boime|1993|p=423}} For example, an art writer for the ''[[Philadelphia Evening Telegraph|Philadelphia Daily Evening Telegraph]]'', though praising Tanner's artistic technique, referred to the painting's elderly subject as "an old Uncle Ned, bald and venerable."{{sfn|Woods|2017|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|skUrDwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA79 79]}}{{efn-ua|The term "Uncle Ned" has a negative connotation towards African Americans. For example, American sculptor [[John Rogers (sculptor)|John Rogers]]'s sculptural group ''Uncle Ned's School'' caricatures a futile attempt at teaching an African American to read and has been read as a criticism of [[Reconstruction era]] efforts to educate African Americans.{{sfn|Boime|1993|pp=423–424}}}} Art historian Naurice Frank Woods believes that such derogatory responses to ''The Banjo Lesson'' led Tanner to question whether his paintings could effect any change on the public's perception of African Americans. Nevertheless, ''The Thankful Poor'' would see Tanner incorporate his beliefs on education and race in another attempt at placing African-American culture in a positive light.{{sfn|Woods|2017|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|skUrDwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA79 79]}}
== History ==
=== Initial reception and role in Tanner's career ===
Sometime from January to April 1894, Tanner completed the painting,{{sfnm|1a1=Sewell|1a2=Mosby|1y=1991|1p=[https://archive.org/details/henryossawatanne0000unse/page/123 123]}} which was exhibited with ''The Banjo Lesson'' from April 28 to May 5, 1894 at the James S. Earle and Sons Gallery in Philadelphia.{{sfn|Taylor|2020|pp=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|h4T3DwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PT36 28–29]}}{{sfn|Woods|2017|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|skUrDwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA85 85]}} Tanner received favorable reviews from critics, one of whom called ''The Thankful Poor'' "an important work" and praised its execution.{{sfn|Mosby|1995|p=33}} Still, an otherwise commendatory review of Tanner's painting in the ''[[Philadelphia Inquirer]]'' was racially slanted and used a pejorative term to describe the elderly man.{{sfn|Woods|2017|pp=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|skUrDwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA85 85], [ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|skUrDwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA93 93]}} The art correspondent who wrote that review possibly wrote the similarly praiseful but stereotyped review of ''The Banjo Lesson'' a year earlier.{{sfn|Woods|2017|pp=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|skUrDwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA79 79], [ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|skUrDwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA85 85]}} On Tanner's return to Paris in 1894, ''The Banjo Lesson'' became his first accepted work at the [[Paris Salon]]{{sfn|Woods|2011|p=895}} where it received an honorable place.{{sfn|Alexander-Minter|2005|p=130}} ''The Thankful Poor'' did not enjoy a similar reception. Woods writes that "while [''The Banjo Lesson''] has remained the subject of intense scholarly scrutiny and public adoration, [''The Thankful Poor''] has lingered, undeservedly, in its iconic shadow."{{sfn|Woods|2017|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|skUrDwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA79 79]}}
Following the showing of ''The Banjo Lesson'', many—including family friend and leading African-American scholar [[William Sanders Scarborough]]—expected Tanner to continue counteracting black stereotypes through his art. Scarborough himself commented, "... many of the friends of the race sincerely hoped that a portrayer of Negro Life by a Negro artist had arisen indeed{{nbsp}}... to counterbalance{{nbsp}}... the most extravagantly absurd and grotesque."{{sfn|Woods|2011|p=895}}{{sfn|Woods|2017|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|skUrDwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA76 76]}} Despite his support and critical success, Tanner moved away from painting African Americans after completing ''The Thankful Poor'', thus making the work Tanner's last known genre scene of this type.{{sfn|Pinder|1997|p=229}}{{sfn|Woods|2011|p=895}} Woods hypothesizes that a lack of sales coupled with derogatory racial references from reviews such as the one in the ''Philadelphia Inquirer'' led Tanner to consider his two genre paintings as "a failed experiment." Woods notes that the acceptance of ''The Banjo Lesson'' into the Salon did little to promote sales of Tanner's genre works in the United States. As such, Tanner "simply moved on" to other subjects.{{sfn|Woods|2017|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|skUrDwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA86 86]}} Scarborough also suggests that Tanner's rejection of black subjects stemmed from both his religious convictions and his father's desire for him to become a religious painter.{{sfnm|1a1=Sewell|1a2=Mosby|1y=1991|1p=[https://archive.org/details/henryossawatanne0000unse/page/125 125]}} In the years following ''The Thankful Poor'', Tanner did become a religious painter, finding more critical and commercial success with biblical scenes.{{sfn|Woods|2011|p=895–896}} Tanner said of this shift:
{{Blockquote
}}
Though Tanner did not mention ''The Thankful Poor'' in his autobiography and interviews,{{sfnm|1a1=Sewell|1a2=Mosby|1y=1991|1p=[https://archive.org/details/henryossawatanne0000unse/page/125 125]}} the painting is considered one of his most significant. In his 2017 biography of Tanner, Woods assesses the painting to be "the first to explore fully African American religiosity" and the "harbinger" of Tanner's later religious works.{{sfn|Woods|2017|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|skUrDwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA80 80]}} He concludes that the painting is the "key transitional work to the 'deeper things' that would guide [Tanner] to a successful career."{{sfn|Woods|2017|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|skUrDwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA84 84]}}
===Provenance and exhibition history===
[[File:7500 Germantown Ave Philly.JPG|thumb|alt=Stone facade and entryway of a multistory building|[[Pennsylvania School for the Deaf]]]]
In December 1893, while his ''The Bagpipe Lesson'' was on display at the [[Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts]] in Philadelphia, Tanner met John T. Morris, head of the academy's exhibitions committee.{{sfn|Marley|2012|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|HDQlDQAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA278 278]}} Morris then bought ''The Thankful Poor'' in October 1894{{sfn|Marley|2012|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|HDQlDQAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA279 279]}} when Tanner auctioned off all of his work to pay for his return to France.{{sfn|Woods|2017|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|skUrDwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA86 86]}} Morris loaned the painting to the [[Pennsylvania School for the Deaf]],{{sfn|Marley|2012|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|HDQlDQAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA279 279]}} where he was a board member,{{sfn|Woods|2017|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|skUrDwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA86 86]}} and then bequeathed it to the school on his death in 1915.{{sfn|Art Bridges}} The work sat unnoticed in the school's basement for half a century until 1970, when it was discovered in a storage closet by the headmaster Philip Bellefleur.{{sfn|Whitaker|2014|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|RPhtAwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA275 275]}}{{sfn|Skeel|1991}} It was given on loan to the [[Philadelphia Museum of Art]] before being sold in December 1981 to [[Camille Cosby]], as a Christmas present for her husband, the comedian [[Bill Cosby]].{{sfn|Skeel|1991}}{{sfnm|1a1=Driskell|1a2=Cosby|1y=2001|1p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|rqQxHHD8_V4C}}&pg=PR11 xiii]}} The painting was purchased by the Cosbys' art curator [[David Driskell]] at a [[Sotheby's]] auction for $250,000{{sfn|Skeel|1991}}{{efn-ua|Sources disagree on what the painting's final price, including [[buyer's premium]], was; one says it was $280,500{{sfn|Hampton University}} while another claims it was as high as $287,000.{{sfn|Parker|2002}} The previous auction record for ''The Thankful Poor'' was $40,000.{{sfn|Davis|1986|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|p18EAAAAMBAJ}}&pg=PA88 88]}}}}—a record sum at the time for a painting by an African American.{{sfn|Hampton University}}{{sfn|Parker|2002}}{{efn-ua|This record amount was surpassed in 1998 when [[Jean-Michel Basquiat]]'s ''Self-Portrait'' was sold for $3.3 million at a [[Christie's]] auction.{{sfn|Parker|2002}}}}
The study for ''The Thankful Poor'' was part of the June 25 to August 20, 1995 exhibition "Across Continents and Cultures" at the [[Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art]] in [[Kansas City]], [[Missouri]].{{sfn|Mosby|1995|p=90}} The exhibition was devoted to Tanner's works and was subsequently on view at the [[Dallas Museum of Art]] in [[Texas]] and the [[Terra Museum of American Art]] in Chicago.{{sfn|Mosby|1995|loc=Edition Notice}} In 2014, the Cosbys loaned ''The Thankful Poor'' itself from [[Camille O. and William H. Cosby Collection of African American Art|their private collection]] to the [[National Museum of African Art]] in [[Washington, D.C.]] as part of the museum's "Conversations: African and African American Artworks in Dialogue" exhibition, which ran from November 9, 2014 to January 24, 2016.{{sfn|National Museum of African Art}}{{sfn|Cotter|2014}} In 2016, the study was featured at the DuSable Museum of African American History in an exhibition called the "DuSable Masterworks Collection". The exhibit celebrated the works of African-American artists like Tanner from the late 19th to the mid-20th centuries.{{sfn|WLS-TV|2016}}<!-- The text of the article does not mention that the painting is only a study, but the news video clearly shows that the work on display is the study (not the actual painting) --> In 2020, the Cosbys sold the painting privately via the M. Hanks Gallery to [[Alice Walton]]'s nonprofit foundation Art Bridges, which loans artworks to American art exhibitions.{{sfn|Art Bridges}}{{sfn|Greenberger|2017}}
=== Depiction of African Americans ===
[[File:The Thankful Poor (elder).jpg|thumb|left|upright=0.9|alt=Elderly African-American man praying at a table|Detail of the old man]]
Though underpinned with religious undertones, ''The Thankful Poor'' does not portray a [[Bible|biblical]] subject like Tanner's later religious paintings. Rather, the genre painting depicts a daily ritual for impoverished African Americans through a realistic scene.{{sfn|National Museum of African Art}}{{sfn|Taylor|2020|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|h4T3DwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PT40 32]}} This "inside look" into African-American religious custom{{sfn|Wilson|1992|p=45}} depicts its subjects with a level of dignity and self-possession that has been described as "extraordinary" for Tanner's time.{{sfn|Wilson|1992|p=40}}
[[File:The Thankful Poor (boy).jpg|thumb|upright=0.7|alt=African-American boy at a table with a hand against his head|Detail of the boy]]
Tanner's stylistic choice for his genre paintings break from the typical late 19th century derogatory caricatures of African American.{{sfn|Mann|2020}} Contemporary representations usually mocked African-American religious practice as tribal and superstitious,{{sfn|Boime|1993|p=424}} in contrast to a supposedly more advanced, introspective, and contemplative white religiosity.{{sfn|Wilson|1992|p=40}} ''The Thankful Poor''{{'}}s calm portrayal of everyday Christian devotions in a modest setting challenges contemporary perceptions of black religiosity as overly emotional and inferior.{{sfn|Wilson|1992|p=40}} The subject may also reflect the particular reverence for [[Thanksgiving Day]] in the AME.{{sfn|Boime|1993|p=424}}{{sfn|Taylor|2020|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|h4T3DwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PT36 28]}} According to Woods, the tenets of the AME and the intrinsic messages in Bishop Tanner's writings and sermons coincide with the painting's intended purpose of dispelling negative visual stereotypes and racial divisions.{{sfn|Woods|2017|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|skUrDwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA83 83]}}
In the catalog of the 1991 exhibition of Tanner's work at the Philadelphia Museum of Art,{{efn-ua|''The Thankful Poor'' was covered in the catalog but was not part of the exhibition.{{sfnm|1a1=Sewell|1a2=Mosby|1y=1991|1p=[https://archive.org/details/henryossawatanne0000unse/page/116 116]}}}} ''The Thankful Poor'' is designated as a "dignified portrayal of the old man and boy at prayer [that] transcends any other image of black Americans in American art."{{sfnm|1a1=Sewell|1a2=Mosby|1y=1991|1p=[https://archive.org/details/henryossawatanne0000unse/page/124 124]}}{{sfn|Alexander-Minter|2005|p=131}} The National Museum of African Art's "Conversations" exhibition describes Tanner's depiction of his subjects as "intimate" and "human"—and deems the painting to be a "milestone" in the history of African-American art.{{sfn|National Museum of African Art}}
=== Connections to other works by Tanner ===
Tanner's other African-American genre painting ''[[The Banjo Lesson]]'' exhibits a [[realism (arts)|realism]] and respect for its subjects similar to that of ''The Thankful Poor''.{{sfn|Wilson|1992|p=40}} The two works share a domestic setting and an emphasis on intergenerational relationships.{{sfn|Taylor|2020|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|h4T3DwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PT35 27]}} Moreover, there is a common theme of education: the education in ''The Banjo Lesson'' is a musical lesson while the education in ''The Thankful Poor'' is a young boy imitating his elder praying.{{sfn|Boime|1993|pp=423–424}} These similarities suggest that Tanner intended for the two paintings to be a pair that "should be read together."{{sfn|Taylor|2020|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|h4T3DwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PT35 27]}} Likewise, Woods writes that both paintings "remain inextricably linked in creative motivation, technical execution, and attention to race matters{{nbsp}}...", and art historian Judith Wilson refers to the pair as "an interlocking set of arguments."{{sfn|Woods|2017|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|skUrDwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA79 79]}}
The art historian [[Albert Boime]] believes that the study of ''[[The Young Sabot Maker]]'' on the reverse is no coincidence. He suggests that there is thematic continuity between the two paintings, evidenced by the presence of an elder and a youth in both works.{{sfn|Boime|1993|pp=424, 426}} Though the final version of ''The Young Sabot Maker'' does not feature African Americans like ''The Thankful Poor'', Boime notes that in the final study for the former, both the apprentice and the master "appear to be of African-American descent."{{sfn|Boime|1993|p=426}} Similarities continue in the underlying theme of education, which ''The Young Sabot Maker'' shares with both ''The Thankful Poor'' and ''The Banjo Lesson''.{{sfn|Taylor|2020|p=[ https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|h4T3DwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PT45 37]}}{{sfn|Boime|1993|pp=423–424}}
== Footnotes ==
=== Sources ===
==== Book sources ====
* {{Cite book |last=Bruce |first=Marcus |url= https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|lkBQAAAAMAAJ}} |title=Henry Ossawa Tanner: A Spiritual Biography |publisher=Crossroad Publishing Company |year=2002 |isbn=978-0-8245-1972-8}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Driskell |first1=David C. |last2=Cosby |first2=Camille O. |url= https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|rqQxHHD8_V4C}} |title=The Other Side of Color: African American Art in the Collection of Camille O. and William H. Cosby, Jr. |publisher=[[Pomegranate (publisher)|Pomegranate Communications, Inc.]] |year=2001 |isbn=0-7649-1455-3 |pages=xiii–xiv |chapter=Introduction: Camille O. Cosby |author-link=David Driskell |author-link2=Camille Cosby |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|rqQxHHD8_V4C}}&pg=PR11}}
* {{Cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|HDQlDQAAQBAJ}} |title=Henry Ossawa Tanner: Modern Spirit |publisher=[[University of California Press]] |year=2012 |isbn=978-0-520-27074-9 |editor-last=Marley |editor-first=Anna O. |pages=275–291 |chapter=Chronology |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|HDQlDQAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA275}}
* {{Cite book |last=Mosby |first=Dewey F. |url= https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|1yZQAAAAMAAJ}} |title=Across Continents and Cultures: The Art and Life of Henry Ossawa Tanner |publisher=[[Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art]] |year=1995 |isbn=978-0-942614-24-4}}
* {{Cite book |last1=Sewell |first1=Darrel |last2=Mosby |first2=Dewey F. |url=https://archive.org/details/henryossawatanne0000unse |title=Henry Ossawa Tanner |publisher=[[Philadelphia Museum of Art]] and [[Rizzoli Libri#Rizzoli International|Rizzoli International Publications]] |year=1991 |isbn=0-8478-1346-0 |pages=86–145 |chapter=Paris, Racial Awareness, and Success |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/henryossawatanne0000unse/page/86}}
* {{Cite encyclopedia |year=2020 |title=Henry Ossawa Tanner and African American Realist Paintings of Poverty in the 1890s |encyclopedia=Poverty in American Popular Culture: Essays on Representations, Beliefs and Policy |publisher=[[McFarland & Company|McFarland & Company, Inc.]] |url= https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|h4T3DwAAQBAJ}} |last=Taylor |first=Lyrica |editor-last=Lenz |editor-first=Wylie |pages=25–40 |isbn=978-1-4766-3903-1}}
* {{Cite book |last=Whitaker |first=Mark |url= https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|RPhtAwAAQBAJ}} |title=Cosby: His Life and Times |publisher=[[Simon & Schuster]] |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-4516-9797-1 |pages=267–285 |chapter=The Art of Jell-O |author-link=Mark Whitaker (journalist) |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|RPhtAwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA267}}
* {{Cite book |last=Woods |first=Naurice Frank |url= https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|skUrDwAAQBAJ}} |title=Henry Ossawa Tanner: Art, Faith, Race, and Legacy |publisher=[[Routledge]] |year=2017 |isbn=978-1-315-27948-0 |pages=71–93 |chapter=The American Interlude: Race and Religion on Canvas |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|skUrDwAAQBAJ}}&pg=PA71}}
==== Journal sources ====
==== Other sources ====
* {{Cite news |last=Cotter |first=Holland |author-link=Holland Cotter |date=November 6, 2014 |title=Continents in Conversation |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/07/arts/design/bill-cosbys-art-collection-joins-african-art-at-smithsonian.html |access-date=January 15, 2021}}
* {{Cite magazine |last=Davis |first=Tonya Bolden |date=1986 |title=Collecting Black Art: Investing Wisely in the Works of Black Artists can be a Satisfying Source of Cultural Pride and Personal Profit |url= https://books.google.com/books?id={{trim|p18EAAAAMBAJ}} |magazine=[[Black Enterprise]] |publisher=Earl G. Graves, Ltd. |volume=17 |issn=0006-4165 |pages=85–92 |number=5}}
* {{Cite news |last=Parker |first=Lonnae O'Neal |date=April 3, 2002 |title=Cosby collection curator puts passion on display |work=[[Chicago Tribune]] |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2002-04-03-0204030029-story.html |access-date=February 22, 2021}}
* {{Cite magazine |last=Skeel |first=Sharon Kay |date=February–March 1991 |title=A Black American In The Paris Salon |url=https://www.americanheritage.com/black-american-paris-salon |magazine=[[American Heritage (magazine)|American Heritage]] |publisher=American Heritage Publishing Co. |volume=42 |issue=1 |access-date=January 15, 2021}}
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