Soaring Eagle

Generously provided by Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology and the Regents of the University of California, Berkeley

In early 1899 Sharp published an article, "An Artist Among the Indians," in the national art magazine, Brush and Pencil. He spoke fondly of his attachment to Native people as subjects and how one particular Pueblo man was his favorite. This was Soaring Eagle, known around the Taos community as Juan. According to Sharp, Juan had an imposing physiognomy, was "beautiful in figure, stolid, and as inquisitive as a child." In a later account, Sharp said Soaring Eagle "brought the first Peyote into Taos from Oklahoma" and was the first Indian he ever painted at the pueblo (mentioned on verso of Record 253). The year of that early painting was 1893, and the Pueblo man who is thought to be Juan was pictured stretching a hide (related image 168a). Stretching a Hide was exhibited in Cincinnati's Traxel & Maas Galleries in 1894 and praised for its expressiveness and delicate color. (Cincinnati Tribune, 1894)

Soaring Eagle was probably among the first portraits sold to Phoebe Hearst in December 1901 and one of the most compelling. Juan became a favorite model for other Taos artists too. Ernest Blumenschein presented him as the chief of Taos Pueblo in his 1917 masterpiece, The Chief Speaks. (related image 168b) This oil portrays three generations of Soaring Eagle's family with his father in the middle of the group, and his son, Hunting Son, on the right (who by then was the head of the Peyote Clan in Taos and Sharp's most frequent model).

Sharp evidently made a pastel drawing of Soaring Eagle at the time of his oil. (related image 168c)

Peter H. Hassrick

Artist: Joseph Henry Sharp
Date: 1898
Catalogue Number: 168
Medium: oil on canvas
Inscriptions: LL: COPYRIGHT 1898 / BY / J.H. SHARP. / TAOS. N. MEX.

Dimensions: 13 5/8 x 9 1/2 in.
Credit Line: Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology and the Regents of the University of California, Berkeley, CA
Accession Number: 17-58
Subjects: Pueblo, man, portrait

The artist; Phoebe A. Hearst, San Francisco, CA, 1902; present owner by gift

According to label on verso: "Soaring Eagle, Pueblo of Taos, N.M. my favorite model and fine type." There is also a sticker on the verso that indicates that the painting was exhibited at the Denver Artists' Club with a price of $200 prior to the Hearst purchase.

Soaring Eagle's portrait was exhibited at the Cincinnati Museum in 1900 and at the Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, NY, and the Cosmos Club in Washington, D.C. in 1901.

Soaring Eagle

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