The Banjo Lesson

Henry Ossawa Tanner’s The Banjo Lesson depicts an elderly man patiently guiding a young boy’s hands on a banjo in a warmly lit interior. Tanner, the first African American painter to achieve international renown, deliberately reversed the era’s demeaning minstrel imagery: here the banjo is the occasion for a quiet scene of teaching and tenderness between generations. The painting is a landmark of American art and a defining image of Black family life.