Decorated Ostrakon
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Brooklyn Museum photograph
Object Label
In this dramatic nocturnal scene, Henry Ossawa Tanner recorded the Celebration of the Dead, held on July 13, 1919, in Paris to honor those who died defending France during World War I. Here, the crowd is rendered as a largely anonymous mass; the figures converge before a brilliantly illuminated cenotaph, or empty tomb, temporarily erected behind the Arc de Triomphe. As in many of Tanner’s religious nocturnes, the cool cerulean palette and muted tonalities evoke a solemn, even spiritual, mood.
Paris was a familiar subject for Tanner, an African American expatriate artist of international renown who resided in the French capital and in Brittany for most of his adult life. During these decades abroad, Tanner experienced racial prejudice to a lesser degree than he had in the United States and enjoyed greater artistic freedom and opportunity.
Caption
Decorated Ostrakon, ca. 1336–1295 B.C.E.. Limestone, pigment, 3 13/16 x 6 7/8 in. (9.7 x 17.5 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund, 58.28.1. Creative Commons-BY (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, CUR.58.28.1_wwg8.jpg)
Title
Decorated Ostrakon
Date
ca. 1336–1295 B.C.E.
Dynasty
Dynasty 18
Period
New Kingdom
Geography
Place excavated: Thebes (Sheikh Abd el Kurneh), Egypt
Medium
Limestone, pigment
Classification
Dimensions
3 13/16 x 6 7/8 in. (9.7 x 17.5 cm)
Credit Line
Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund
Accession Number
58.28.1
Rights
Creative Commons-BY
You may download and use Brooklyn Museum images of this three-dimensional work in accordance with a Creative Commons license. Fair use, as understood under the United States Copyright Act, may also apply. Please include caption information from this page and credit the Brooklyn Museum. If you need a high resolution file, please fill out our online application form (charges apply). For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org.
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