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Who was the frst Black painter to be represented in the White House art collection?

In 1996 the White House had a permanent art collection of 450 pieces. In this collection there were no artworks by
African-American artists. That year the White House acquired Henry Ossawa Tanner’s 1886 landscape Sand Dunes at
Sunset, Atlantic City. It was bought from Tanner’s grandniece, Rae Alexander Minter, for $100,000.

Tanner was the most distinguished African-American artist of the nineteenth century. He was also the frst artist of his
race to acquire international recognition. Tanner was born on June 21, 1859, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, to Benjamin
Tucker Tanner and Sarah Miller Tanner.

Woman, Mother, Wife by Gerald Branch
(on opposite page)

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