I enjoy the novels of Emma Donoghue although they can be harrowing. Her breakthrough novel was Room and others I've read such as The Pull of the Stars and Haven certainly create high drama. She is an excellent writer, so I made sure I was on the library list for The Paris Express and lots of people are waiting eagerly behind me.
I'm about 100 pages along and I'm pleasantly surprised that one of the passengers on this 19th century French train is the American artist Henry Tanner. Henry Ossawa Tanner was a person of colour, called a mulatto in that day, although I didn't know this until The Paris Express. Black artists such as Tanner, novelist James Baldwin, and singer Josephine Baker made their way to France where there was less discrimination and greater opportunity to thrive. There is currently an exhibition in Paris featuring several of them, including these three.
I've enjoyed Tanner's detailed and evocative biblical paintings for decades and used them as sermon illustrations a number of times. His depiction of The Annunciation, the angel Gabriel appearing to Mary, is a meaningful antidote to the more formalized images from Medieval and Renaissance art.
Tanner shows up early in The Paris Express which is based on historic events including a train wreck in Paris in 1895. Since I know that he survived (if he was actually on that train) I'm anticipating how Donoghue ensures his well-being!
The Disciples See Christ Walking on the Water (1907; oil on canvas) by Henry Ossawa Tanner.
The Banjo Lesson (1893; oil on canvas) by Henry Ossawa Tanner.
(There are no banjos in the Bible!)
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