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Joseph Henry Sharp Information

Joseph Henry Sharp (27 September 1859–29 August 1953) was an American painter and a founding member of the Taos Society of Artists, of which he is considered the "Spiritual Father".[1] Sharp was the first European-American artist to discover Taos, New Mexico[1] when he visited in 1893. He painted American Indian portraits and cultural life, as well as Western landscapes.

Contents

Early life and education

Sharp was born in Bridgeport, Ohio on September 27, 1859 to Irish immigrant parents. His father was a merchant by trade. From childhood, Sharp was fascinated with anything to do with American Indians.[1]

During his childhood, Sharp nearly drowned in a swimming accident. He was pulled from the water and carried to his home by friends who thought he was dead. At home, he was resuscitated by his mother. However, the incident permanently damaged his hearing and he gradually became totally deaf. As a result, he had to learn to read lips and had to carry a writing pad with him.[1]

Sharp's father died when he was twelve years old.[1] At the age of twelve or thirteen, he began working in a nail factory to help support his family.[2] By age 14, his hearing loss made continued schooling impossible.[1] He quit school and moved to Cincinnati, where he lived with an aunt and worked to support himself and send money to his mother.[1] He studied briefly at the McMicken School of Design, then enrolled at the Cincinnati Art Academy.[2]

In 1881, Sharp traveled to Europe, where he studied for a year at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp, Belgium. He briefly returned to the United States and in 1883 made the first of his journeys to the American West, visiting the states of New Mexico, Arizona, California and Wyoming, where he began sketching members of American Indian tribes.[2]

By 1896, he had returned to Europe and continued his studies at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich and the Académie Julian in Paris. He also studied with Frank Duveneck in Italy.[2]

Artistic career

Oil paintings by Joseph Henry Sharp

Three Taos Indians Blow Hole, Honolulu

Sharp returned to Cincinnati in 1892, where he married[1] and taught at the Cincinnati Art Academy. During this period, he painted portraits of local society members.[2]

In 1893, he made his second trip to the American West and visited Taos, New Mexico for the first time, on a commission from Harper's Weekly to illustrate Indian life at the Taos Pueblo.[1] The Sangre de Cristo Mountains and the local Indian culture sparked his enthusiasm, which he shared with colleagues Ernest Blumenschein and Bert Phillips at Académie Julian the next year.[2]

Sharp continued to teach in Cincinnati until 1902. During this period he also spent time in Montana, where he camped at the battlefield of Little Big Horn.[1] There he painted scenes of native life and portraits of members of the Plains tribes, including the Crow, Sioux, and Nez Perce.[2] In 1900, these portraits were exhibited in Washington, D.C. The Smithsonian Institution bought eleven of the portraits.[1]

Sharp came to the attention of President Theodore Roosevelt, who took an interest in him and arranged[1][3] for the Indian Commission to assist Sharp to build a log cabin[4] — on government land and at government expense[5] — at the intersection of two rivers at Little Big Horn near Crow Agency, Montana,[1] which he named "Absarokee Hut".[5] Sharp designed the structure of Absarokee Hut himself, as a one-room cabin with a lean-to containing a bedroom and kitchen. The ridgepole of the cabin was high enough (16.5 ft.) to permit a balcony at one end, which was draped with animal hides and Indian blankets for privacy, allowing it to be used as a guest bedroom. The cabin was furnished in an Arts and Crafts style and decorated with Sharp's collection of Indian artifacts, which included Navajo rugs, a buffalo robe, shields, pottery, and baskets. The cabin was featured in The Craftsman magazine.[5]

Subsequently, 80 of Sharp's paintings were purchased by Phoebe Hearst (mother of William Randolph Hearst), which enabled Sharp to quit teaching, move into Absarokee Hut, and devote himself to painting.[1] Hearst commissioned an additional 75 portraits to include members of every major Plains tribe. (Hearst's entire collection of 155 of Sharp's paintings was eventually donated to the University of California, Berkeley.)[6]

Sharp continued to spend some summers in New Mexico, and in 1909 he purchased a former Penitente chapel in Taos for use as a studio.[1] He finally made a permanent move to Taos in 1912. In 1915, he became one of the six founding members the Taos Society of Artists, of which he was the most senior and experienced.[2]

Winters in Hawaii

Starting in 1930, Sharp vacationed for a number of winters in Hawaii together with his second wife, Louise. While in Hawaii, Sharp painted only for pleasure. At the request of a local gallery owner, Sharp agreed to show some of his work. The Sharps wintered in Hawaii for the next eight years, except for 1931 and 1933, when they wintered in Mexico and the Orient respectively.[1]

1949 retrospective

The Gilcrease Museum (Tulsa, Oklahoma) featured a retrospective of Sharp's work in 1949. The Museum currently curates the largest collection of Sharp's work worldwide.[1]

Death and legacy

Sharp closed the studio in Taos when he was 93 years old to travel to California. While he intended to return to Taos the next year, he fell ill and died in Pasadena, California on August 29, 1953.[1] Over his lifetime, Sharp had produced around 10,500 works of art, including oil paintings, etchings, monotypes, pastels, and watercolors. Of these works, fully 7,800 are of Native American subjects, including 3,200 portraits.[1] He was a historian of the West as well as a painter, and helped to preserve the record of a way of life that was changing.

Studio

Sharp's historic studio is maintained as part of The Couse/Sharp Historic Site at 146 Kit Carson Road in Taos by The Couse Foundation, which offers scheduled and private tours.[7]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s Taos Painters: Joseph Henry Sharp (1859-1953)
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h Peters, Gerald III (ed.) The Taos Society of Artist: Masters and Masterpieces. Gerald Peters Gallery, 1998. ISBN 0-935037-78-0
  3. ^ Yellowstone Art Museum: The Works of Joseph Henry Sharp at Traditional Fine Arts Organization.
  4. ^ Newby, Rick. The Greenwood Encyclopedia of American Regional Cultures: The Rocky Mountain Region, pp. 37-38. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2004. ISBN 9780313328176
  5. ^ a b c Boehme, Sarah E. Absarokee Hut: The Joseph Henry Sharp Cabin. Excerpt at [1]
  6. ^ Nygard, Thomas. "Joseph Henry Sharp: The Lure Of The West"
  7. ^ The Couse Foundation and The Couse/Sharp Historic Site

Further reading

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Joseph Henry Sharp
Paintings
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Name Sharp, Joseph Henry
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth 1859-09-27
Place of birth Bridgeport, Ohio
Date of death 1953-08-29
Place of death Pasadena, California

Categories: 1859 births | 1953 deaths | Alumni of the Académie Julian | Alumni of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts (Antwerp) | American painters | Artists from New Mexico | Artists from Cincinnati, Ohio | People from Belmont County, Ohio | People from Taos County, New Mexico | Taos Society of Artists

 

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