Etcher, draughtsman, painter in watercolour, teacher and writer, born in Bristol, but spent most of his life in northwest Wiltshire, which was the main subject of his work. In 1921 he became a student teacher in a local school, then attended Goldsmiths’ College and taught at a poor school in Greenwich. Studied at Goldsmiths’ School of Art in the evenings, his teachers including Clive Gardiner and Stanley Anderson, was influenced by Blake, Palmer and F L M Griggs and began to show work. In 1928 returned to Wiltshire and married the writer Heather Tanner, who was to supply the text of several joint books; they had a house built at Kington Langley. In the 1929 slump he took a teaching job while continuing his artistic work, in 1934 being elected to the Society of Painters in Tempera.
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In 1935 Tanner was made a schools inspector, working initially in Leeds, then in Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire, where he advocated liberal ideas in arts and crafts teaching. He retired in 1964, which allowed him to take up etching again after a gap of about 20 years. A painstaking craftsman, he completed only about 40 plates. Tanner was a Quaker who revered the countryside and traditional crafts. Among his books were Wiltshire Village, 1939; Flowers of the Meadow, 1948; Woodland Plants, 1981; and his autobiography, Double Harness, 1987. There was a retro- spective at City of Bristol Museum and Art Gallery and Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, 1980–1. In 1988 Garton & Co held a memorial show. There was a substantial exhibition of etchings at Wine Street Gallery, Devizes, in 2003. In 2004 one show reviewing his achievement accompanied the Olympia Fine Art and Antiques Fair; and Visions of Landscape, works by Samuel Palmer and Tanner, was organised by The Fine Art Society.
Text source: 'Artists in Britain Since 1945' by David Buckman (Art Dictionaries Ltd, part of Sansom & Company)
