Born in 1859 to a prominent minister in the African Methodist Episcopal church, Tanner was raised in Philadelphia and in 1879 became the first black student at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, where he studied under the progressive painter Thomas Eakins. His work found critical favor, even more so after he moved to Paris in 1891. When Tanner started painting biblical subjects, art critic Rodman Wanamaker financed an all-expenses-paid trip for him to the Middle East so that he could familiarize himself with the people and places he was painting. The Savior is based on one of the sketches Tanner made during this trip.