An acquisition of 23 works has recently come into the possession of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Bentonville, Arkansas, from the collection of Los Angeles-based collector and noted scholar Gordon W. Bailey. Among both the historic and contemporary pieces included the acquisition is an oil on canvas by Henry Ossawa Tanner titled The Good Shepherd. Painted in 1917, the oil features a muted color palette and depicts a shepherd in the foreground, flanked by a pack mule and a sheep, with the rest of the herd filling the mid-ground of the composition. 
Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937), The Good Shepherd, 1917. Oil on canvas, 25½ x 32 in. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, Arkansas. photo by Edward C. Robison III
“Tanner gained great success in the international art world around 1900, and his work inspired generations of American artists,” says Mindy N. Besaw, curator at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art. “The Good Shepherd is an important addition to the Crystal Bridges collection, and we’re looking forward to putting the work in context not only of [Thomas] Eakins, but also his other contemporaries.”
The piece represents a more mature painting style from Tanner and will be on view in the museum’s Early American Art Galleries. —
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