ABSTRACT
Tanner was back in the United States by July 1893. He carried with him letters of the highest commendation from his teachers Laurens and Benjamin-Constant, and found that he had gained a bit more notoriety. The massive visual assault was, therefore, extremely detrimental to public perceptions of black character and behavior especially when accompanied by a brutal attempt to push black physiognomy toward the grotesque in an effort to denigrate black self-worth and boost notions of white preeminence. Tanner's solution to this dilemma was to use his position and power as an African American artist to benefit his race. He accepted the challenge of correcting the detrimental treatment his people had suffered at the hands of prejudiced white artists. As a religious painting, Thankful is completely original in American art of the period in its approach to wedding spiritually within African American genre scenes and in its underlying message of racial equality through shared religious experiences.
