Pottery Decorators

or
[The Pottery Decorators]

Generously provided by Gilcrease Museum

Here are featured Crucita and her daughter, Leaf Down, Sharp's most beloved female models from the Taos Pueblo, and a wide selection of the most cherished props from the artist’s closet. Arrayed before the viewer are two of the artist’s Hopi dresses, an assortment of painted Pueblo pots and clay effigy figures, a Rio Grande rug, a fringed, floral shawl with roses, and a Nez Perce corn husk bag. Crucita points, with her rather badly out-of-drawing left arm and hand, to an undecorated olla cradled on Leaf Down’s knees.

This is not Sharp's first exploration into the theme of pottery decoration. An earlier but smaller oil was completed in about 1913 in his old studio. The level of luminescence between the two works is striking, revealing how much sunnier the new workspace was. (see related image 58a)

Sharp reveled in the sanctity of pure craftsmanship. His love of Roycroft furniture, for example, is proof of the measure of importance that he extended to the hand-made object. Just as he was a master craftsman in paint, so too, in his estimation, were the Native people with whom he worked and lived. This painting is a celebration of the synergy he felt for his creative neighbors.

Peter H. Hassrick

Artist: Joseph Henry Sharp
Date: ca. 1915; [1920]
Catalogue Number: 58
Medium: oil on canvas
Inscriptions: LR: JHSHARP.

Inscribed on paper tacked to verso: "Pottery Decorators. Considering design for undecorated Olla in Girl's Lap. Painted late 1920s"

Dimensions: 34 1/2 x 46 1/2 in.
Credit Line: Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK. Gift of the Thomas Gilcrease Foundation, 1955.
Accession Number: 0137.304
Subjects: Crucita, fireplace, girl, interior

The artist; Thomas Gilcrease, Tulsa, OK; The Thomas Gilcrease Foundation, Tulsa, OK, 1955; present owner by gift

Sharp's note seems to be wrong as there are no paintings by this title in known exhibitions of the late 1920s. This is most likely a painting titled Pottery Decorators completed in 1915 in Sharp's new studio and exhibited in the San Diego California Pacific Exposition that year. In Sharp's list of paintings he sent to San Diego is one titled Pottery Decorators that he indicated as measuring 30 x 40 in. (Sharp Papers) Sharp was often vague about measurements, though, so this thought to be that work.

An earlier, smaller version of this scene, known today as Acoma Pottery Decorators, was completed in about 1913 in his Bell Chapel studio and is, no doubt, a precursor. That earlier version is mentioned as Decorating Pottery, Acoma in the Cincinnati Commercial Tribune (11/23/13) (probably related image 58a)

Pottery Decorators

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