Pipe Song

       In an article that appeared in the Cincinnati Enquirer in late November 1923, the newspaper’s art critic Anne Gellenbeck observed that Sharp’s recent work was focused in large measure on one prominent theme, music. “A great many of his paintings illustrate Indian songs,” she wrote. “He has the Hunting Song, the War Bonnet Song (Record 82), Pipe Song (Fenn, 2007, 181), Drum Song (Record 382), and Ceremonial Song for the Return of the Buffalo (related image 279).” Gellenbeck quoted Sharp as saying that when he painted The Drum Song (related image 382) “the three men made so much noise one could hear them three blocks away. I could hear them, and I can hear nothing else.”

 

     In this version, one of at least two of this theme, Sharp pictures three models who are arrayed in a similar way as seen in the Drum Song, but instead of beating drums, one of the models holds a pipe and the trio sings in celebration of its significant place in Native ceremonies. This pipe must have been quite sacred to command such attention.

 

Peter H. Hassrick