About this work
A charcoal on paper work of intimate scale — the sheet measures 23 by 13⅝ inches — *Study for Rachel from The Mothers of the Bible* presents a single standing figure in the spare, concentrated language of preparatory drawing. Tanner renders his subject in charcoal with the full weight of a finished portrait: the figure is elongated and self-contained, draped in loose, flowing garments that fall with quiet gravity to the ground. There is no setting, no narrative prop — only the woman herself, occupying the vertical axis of the composition with a composure that feels both ancient and immediate. The medium rewards close looking: Tanner's linework carries both precision and tenderness, the shadows built through layered strokes that give the figure a sculptural solidity unusual for works on paper.
This study dates to around 1898, made in preparation for Tanner's *Mothers of the Bible* series for the *Ladies' Home Journal* (ca. 1902).
Tanner's wife, Jessie, served as his muse and model for the biblical women in the series, representing figures including Rachel, Hagar, Sarah, and the Virgin Mary. The commission placed him in the unusual position of producing work for a mass-audience American publication while living and working in Paris — a tension that makes the series all the more significant. By the late 1890s, following the French government's purchase of *The Resurrection of Lazarus*, Tanner was an established fixture in the Parisian art scene and well known to American audiences. Rachel — the beloved, long-barren wife of Jacob whose longing for children runs through the book of Genesis — was a figure ideally suited to Tanner's sustained interest in depicting women as subjects of full spiritual and emotional interiority, rather than mere biblical props.
This is a work for rooms that value stillness. Its tonal restraint — the soft greys and deep blacks of charcoal against paper — reads beautifully against warm plaster walls, pale linen, or natural wood. It belongs in a study, a bedroom, or any space where art is meant to reward sustained attention rather than announce itself. The viewer it speaks to is one who is drawn to the devotional and the human in equal measure — someone who finds more in a single figure, quietly rendered, than in any crowded scene. As wall art, it carries the rare quality of growing more resonant the longer you live with it.
