The Thankful Poor

The Thankful Poor
Artist	Henry Ossawa Tanner
Year	1894
Medium	Oil on canvas
Dimensions	90 cm × 112.4 cm (35.5 in × 44.25 in)[1]
Owner	Art Bridges

The Thankful Poor is an 1894 genre painting by the African-American painter Henry Ossawa Tanner. It depicts two African Americans praying at a table, and shares common themes with Tanner's other paintings from the 1890s including The Banjo Lesson (1893) and The Young Sabot Maker (1895). The work is based on photographs Tanner had taken, and is influenced by his views on education and race, which were in turn derived from those of his father, Benjamin Tucker Tanner, and the African Methodist Episcopal Church. The painting is considered a milestone in African-American art, notably for its countering of racial stereotypes.

Following his return to the United States in 1893, Tanner became more racially aware and chose to use artwork including The Thankful Poor as a means of portraying African-American culture in a dignified manner. The painting received praise from critics upon its exhibition in Philadelphia during the spring of 1894, but it is also Tanner's last African-American genre work as the artist began to focus on biblical scenes.

After remaining hidden for years, the painting was discovered in a storage closet of the Pennsylvania School for the Deaf in 1970, before being purchased by Camille and Bill Cosby in 1981 for their private collection. In 2020, the painting was sold by the Cosbys to Art Bridges, a foundation created by Alice Walton for loaning artwork. The Thankful Poor has been exhibited at the National Museum of African Art, and a preparatory study is held by the DuSable Museum of African American History.