The Annunciation was painted in 1898 by Henry Ossawa Tanner and is now located at the Philadelphia Museum of Arts. Its dimensions are 57 x 71 ¼ inches, which tells the audience that it was meant for a public place visible to everybody. The accession number, W1899-1-1, tells us that the painting was brought to the Philadelphia Museum of Arts in 1899 and was the first painting brought in to this museum by Henry Ossawa Tanner.1 In Tanner’s travel to Egypt and Palestine he wanted to experience the people, culture, architect, and the light of the Holy land influenced him to create the moment when Gabriel appears before Mary and announces to her that she will carry the son of God in the simplest way possible. Tanner’s version of the story is remarkably modern and…show more content… The artist distinction between the divine and humanity comes from the use of “golden light” where Mary is physical and real, while Gabriel is in a metaphysical form. Henry Ossawa Tanner shows the relationship between the Holy and human, and the use of light show that divinity contrasted by Mary. In this painting Henry Tanner’s focus seem to be on Mary and Gabriel’s golden light. The walls and floor are made of clay appropriate to the time period of Tanners visit to Egypt and
Palestine. There is no window on the left side of the room and yet it looks like the sun is right outside shining through it. There are different sizes of pots on the left side and on the right side there is a shelf, a window and a dress hanging over a wooden trunk. It appears that its night time considering her surprise to the strange light in her room and the lit oil lamp. Mary is sitting in her bed on the far right facing the light on the left wearing striped and rumpled clothes. Her bed is covered in white bed spread and is wrinkled. There is also a red piece of cloth hanging from the 3 ceiling covering her side of the bed. This may be used as a form of symbolism depicting