File:1893 Tanner (art).jpg

Henry Ossawa Tanner. The Banjo Lesson (1893). Hampton University Museum, Virginia.

It depicts two African-Americans in a humble domestic setting: an old black man is teaching a young boy – possibly his grandson – to play the banjo.

The painting was Tanner's first accepted entry into the Paris Salon, and has been held by Hampton University since 1894. The may be the first painting by an African American to paint other African Americans in a realistic, "genre" style of painting, in which scenes or events from everyday life are chosen for contemplation, including ordinary people engaged in common activities. The painting has elements of American Realism and of French Impressionism.