His First Lesson

or
[Wild Plum Blossoms]

Generously provided by Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art

Springtime in Taos was a season of rebirth and uplifted spirits. The wild plum blossoms symbolized those sentiments. In this scene, a rare early floral subject for Sharp, he joined the master of the Taos plum blossoms, Bert Phillips, in rendering the delicate foliage and animating it by inserting an emblem of regeneration, a Pueblo family. The message was the same as one portrayed by Phillips in his oil, Pueblo Indian Family, executed in this period. (related image 564a) Sharp was remarkably comfortable picturing families, a theme he shared as an inspiration with Phillips in works like this.

The city of Cincinnati faithfully promoted and supported Sharp, from his student days until the end of his successful career. The Cincinnati Business Women’s Club numbered among his patrons. Established in 1916, the club members came from “women active in commerce, industry, and the professions” and by 1921 had a membership of 700. Two years after their founding, art critic Mary L. Alexander applauded the club for their purchase of this painting for “real business acumen as well as good taste” for their clubrooms. Expounding on the good investment to purchase contemporary art of an artist of established reputation, along with the aesthetic value, Alexander discussed the merits of the painting endorsing that it “…is a very fine example of that particular type of Indian pictures which has made Mr. Sharp celebrated in America as a great painter of Indian life.” She particularly liked the sun-drenched landscape noting in this recent work “his palette has been tuned to the modern pitch of out-door color.” The triangular grouping of a Taos family of three in the foreground of sage and plum blossoms echo the distant triangle of snowcapped Taos Mountain. Without Sharp’s explanation of the narrative painting, the viewer would be unaware that the father is directing the toddler’s attention to an unseen rabbit in the brush, his first lesson for the ceremonial summer rabbit hunt that he will participate in when he becomes older. Sharp’s works often depicted aspects of Native American cultural life he experienced. The tradition of the rabbit hunt, which continues today, was portrayed in many of the Taos Society of Artists’ paintings.

Marie Watkins and Peter H. Hassrick

Artist: Joseph Henry Sharp
Date: ca. 1918; [ca. 1920]
Catalogue Number: 564
Medium: oil on linen
Inscriptions: LL: J.H.SHARP.

Dimensions: 24 x 36 in.
Credit Line: Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art, Indianapolis, IN
Accession Number: 1989.3.91
Subjects: Pueblo, family, lesson, spring

The artist; Cincinnati Business Women's Club, Cincinnati, OH; [?]; Harrison Eiteljorg; present owner by gift

Sharp painted two works by this title, one in 1912 and another about 1918. There are no records that suggest this was either of those. However, the purchaser of this painting was the Cincinnati Women's Business Club and they were established in 1916 and was probably inclined to acquire a fairly fresh work.

His First Lesson

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