The Seine

Henry Ossawa Tanner, c. 1902

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Artist: Henry Ossawa Tanner (American, 1859–1937)
Medium: oil on canvas
Size: overall: 22.8 x 33 cm (9 x 13 in.); framed: 41.9 x 52.1 x 6.4 cm (16 1/2 x 20 1/2 x 2 1/2 in.)
Museum: National Gallery of Art
Rights: CC0 — no rights reserved

A city skyline is silhouetted in plum purple against a vivid peach and butter-yellow sky in this horizontal landscape painting. The brilliant sky is reflected in the water below, where a boat is moored along a riverbank. The scene is loosely painted with visible brushstrokes throughout. A wedge-shaped piece of olive green could be land or a dock in the lower right corner of the composition.

A few people standing near the boat tied to a pier there are loosely painted with strokes of dark green and gray. A shallowly arched bridge marches across the river in the middle distance. Two towers and a few rounded buildings of the skyline beyond are outlined against the twilight sky. The artist’s signature is partially legible in the lower left corner: “F.F. Gut H.O.T.” It was also dated “July 10, 1902” but only the y of “July” is visible.