Chief Big Nose

or
Big Nose, Cheyenne Chief

Generously provided by The Butler Institute of American Art

Artist: Joseph Henry Sharp
Date: 1898
Catalogue Number: 330
Medium: oil on canvas
Inscriptions: LL: COPYRIGHT 1898 / BY / J.H.SHARP.

Dimensions: 14 x 10 in.
Credit Line: The Butler Institute of American Art, Youngstown, OH
Accession Number: 913-O-539
Subjects: Cheyenne, portrait

The artist; Joseph G. Butler, Jr., Youngstown, OH; present owner by gift, 1913

Given the date and signature style, this would appear to be a Pueblo man, probably from Taos. However, a monotype issued around 1900 and displayed in Sheridan, WY that fall was titled Big Nose, Cheyenne Chief. He was noted as having the last name of Mower and coming from Oklahoma, so Sharp probably posed him in Taos in 1898 as the Southern Cheyenne visited the Pueblo annually each fall.