“Nicodemus”

Get comfortable, breathe, clear your mind, and ask God to be with you in this time of prayer. Ask God to speak to you through this image.

Let your eyes pause and focus on the part of the image they’re first drawn to. Look at just that part of the image for a minute or two.

Now look at the whole image.

• Is there a word that comes to mind as you look at it

• What thoughts or questions does this image raise?

• What emotions do you feel?

• Does a name for God come to mind? A scripture?

• What title would you give this piece?

Pray through the words, images, emotions, questions, and thoughts that came up for you. Rest in God’s presence, trusting that God is with you even if you don’t “feel” it

As you step out of prayer and into your week,

continue to watch for God. Notice where Jesus is at work in the world, “hidden in plain sight.”

For more information about this piece, see below

• About the artist

  Henry Ossawa Tanner

  The first African-American artist to achieve international prominence, Tanner was also one of the first African Americans to attend the Pennsylvania Academy. He studied with Thomas Eakins before his 1891 departure for Paris to train at the Académie Julian. Feeling at home in France, Tanner spent most of the rest of his life there, successfully exhibiting at the Paris Salon and eventually becoming a member of the Legion of Honor. After his early focus on landscapes and African-American genre scenes showing Eakins's influence, Tanner achieved his greatest success with evocative biblical paintings marked by dramatic, even supernatural, light effects. Tanner's father was a bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and his religious convictions instill these works with a contemplative quietude and profoundly human sensitivity to his subject matter.

• About This Piece

  Painted during the artist's second trip to the Holy Land (sponsored by Tanner's Philadelphia patron Rodman Wanamaker), "Nicodemus" depicts a scene from the Gospel of John in which the Pharisee and "ruler of the Jews" visits Jesus by night to receive his teachings. Tanner remarked that the six months he spent in Jerusalem lent an air of authenticity to this work, and he used local people as sitters. "Nicodemus" was shown at the Academy's 1899 annual, where it was awarded the Lippincott Prize for the best figurative work and purchased for the collection.