Joseph Henry Sharp was born in Bridgeport, Ohio on September 27, 1859.  One of the founders of the Taos Society of Artists, he was known for his American Indian subjects.  He began his study of art at the age of 14. In He traveled to Europe with John Hauser, another Cincinnati artist, who studied with him at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.  Sharp also studied at the Académie Julian in Paris, and in the 1890s with Frank Duveneck in Italy.  He often made sketching trips out to the West for Harper’s Weekly.  In 1901 Sharp was commissioned by the Crow Agency (of the U.S. Government) to build a studio in Montana and to make a visual record of the Indians who fought against General Custer.  He completed over 200 portraits and photographed an additional 400 more.  He split his time between teaching at the Cincinnati Art Academy, sketching in Taos, and painting on the plains.  Sharp’s depictions of the Pueblo Indians engaged in cultural activities reflected his concern for the disappearing traditions of the Indian culture.

Studied

McMicken School of Design (1873); Art Academy of Cincinnati; C. Verlat, in Antwerp (1881); von Marr at Munich Academy (1886); with Duveneck in Spain and Italy; Academie Julian, Paris with J.P. Laurens and Constant (1895-96)

Member

Taos SA; Cincinnati AC; Calif. AC; SC; Calif. PM; AFA; Society of Western Artists

Exhibited

PAFA Ann., 1891-1901; Paris Salon, 1896; NAD, 1897-98; Dept. Ethnology, Pan-Am. Expo, Buffalo, 1901 (medal); Cincinnati AC, 1901 (prize); Corcoran Gal biennials, 1907, 1928; Pan-Calif. Expo, San Diego, 1915 (gold), 1916 (gold); Calif. Art Exh., Pasadena AI, 1930 (prize); AIC; Taos SA, 1915-on; Cincinnati Art Mus., 1915-1930 (solo exhibitions)

Work

Museum of New Mexico, Santa Fe; Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa; Univ. Calif; NMAA; Stark Museum of Art, Orange, TX; Butler Museum; Houston MFA; Phillips Museum, Bartesville, OK; Amon Carter Museum; Wyoming State Gal.; Herron AI; Cincinnati Art Museum; Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia; Houston MFA

References

WW47; P&H Samuels; Sotheby’s "The American West:  the John F. Eulich Collection; Cincinnati Painters of the Golden Age; Eldredge, Art in New Mexico; Forbes, Encounters with Paradise; Fink, American Art at the Nineteenth-Century Paris Salons; 300 Years of American Art; Schimmel, Stark Museum of Art; Campbell, American Art Review "Toas Artists & Their Patrons; Falk, Exh. Record