The Moon of Falling Leaves

Generously provided by Woolaroc Museum & Wildlife Preserve

Sharp considered this rather somber genre scene as one of his most important works from 1908. Completed early that year, it was placed that spring in the traveling show, A Collection of Paintings by J. H. Sharp, hosted by The John Herron Art Institute in Indianapolis. When the painting was exhibited at The Fine Art Institute in Kansas City a few months later, it was listed at $1,200, a price apparently beyond the public’s appetite. The painting did not sell until 1939 among a group of several works that Frank Phillips bought for a total of $1,000.

When the painting was first presented publicly, in Indianapolis, it was noticed by the local press. A writer for The Indianapolis News commented that it revealed one part of the Crow annual cycle. It pictured October. Two other months were mentioned, the Moon of Plenty (September) and the Moon of Difficulty (January). Sharp later produced paintings for these other two parts of the Crow calendar.

In this autumnal riverside domestic view, The Moon of the Falling Leaves, Sharp has inserted a woman and dog next to a rather pumpkin-shaped Crow teepee. Her saddle sits behind her and a pot hovers over a smoldering fire. A slumbering white horse stands motionless in the near distance close to a sagging rack of drying meat. Perhaps the woman's husband is hidden within the structure's walls. Sharp described similar short, bulbous tents as honeymoon lodges as pictured in his Honeymoon Hogan of around 1901. (related image 514a) With a full larder of dried meat on display, the small family was ready for a long stay as newlyweds.

Peter H. Hassrick

Object Information
Provenance

Artist: Joseph Henry Sharp
Date: 1908
Catalogue Number: 514
Medium: oil on canvas
Inscriptions: LR: J.H.SHARP / 08.

Dimensions: 29 x 39 in.
Credit Line: Woolaroc Museum & Wildlife Preserve, Bartlesville, OK
Accession Number: GRA-131
Subjects: Crow, autumn, camp, family, teepee

The artist; Frank Phillips, Bartlesville, OK, 1939; present owner

The Moon of Falling Leaves

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