Crucita—Old Hopi Dress

Generously provided by Buffalo Bill Center of the West

Sharp painted a number of versions of Crucita seated on a banco in his studio in the mid-1930s. Another variation of this work appeared in an exhibition at the Southwest Museum in Los Angeles in 1933. The painting was illustrated in a review by Alma May Cook for the Los Angeles Express (9/5/33) which pictured Crucita in a nearly identical pose, except that she was reaching back and resting on her left arm while holding a Hopi basket with her right hand.

Cook perceptively pointed out the special favor that Sharp offered to Native women in his paintings. She also praised Sharp for his narrative skill. “Always he tells the story of the Indian in so poetic a manner and with such intriguing colors that our interest is at once aroused.” The vigor with which he executed the painting is not only striking but exhilarating. Here Sharp used a palette knife to effect the texture of the adobe wall behind Crucita. The brushwork on the figure is also extremely loose and energetic.

Peter H. Hassrick

Artist: Joseph Henry Sharp
Date: ca. 1933; [1915-1925]
Catalogue Number: 18
Medium: oil on canvas
Inscriptions: LR: J H.SHARP

Dimensions: 16 x 20 1/8 in.
Credit Line: Buffalo Bill Center of the West, Cody, WY
Accession Number: 25.65
Subjects: Crucita, Hopi, portrait, woman

The artist; [?]; Mr. and Mrs. William S. Moorer, Tulsa, OK; gift to present owner, 1965

This was one of the last paintings of Crucita. In an exhibition at the Kreimer & Brother Co. in Cincinnati in 1935, Sharp offered a portrait of Crucita, but such works became increasingly rare offerings in the years ahead.

His earliest female model had been Crucita. He cherished her looks, her stature and her patience as a model from the early teens. In 1913 Sharp painted her as a young woman in a pose similar to this. It was titled simply Crucita. (related image #696) By 1916 Sharp had expanded the pose to include objects and a sense of animation. That later work, The Red Olla, placed her in a shared role with the fabrics and the bowl. (related image #211) In Crucita - Old Hopi Dress, the model has returned to a singular figure, older but just as full of presence, grace, and stature.

Crucita—Old Hopi Dress

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