The Joseph Henry Sharp Online Catalogue
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  • 1859

    Joseph Henry Sharp born in Bridgeport, Ohio, September 27

  • 1863

    Addie Josephine Byram born in

    Liberty, Indiana, October 20

  • 1873

    Enrolls, at age fourteen, in McMicken School of Drawing and Design, Cincinnati

  • 1878

    Etching Club formed in Cincinnati. Sharp is a member.

  • 1879

    Exhibits An Artist’s Attic in the Cincinnati Industrial Exposition

  • 1881

    Travels to Europe and enrolls, at age twenty-two, in Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp

     

    Studies with portrait master Charles Verlat, who offered Antiek (classical antiquities) class in 1881 and Natur (life) class in 1882

  • 1882

    Returns to Cincinnati and rents studio in building at 30 W. Fourth Street, Ogden Building (Whittredge’s old studio)


    He comes under influence of Henry Farny

  • 1883

    Travels west for the first time—Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Tucson, California, and Northwest Coast

  • 1884

    Entered The Neophyte in Cincinnati's Twelfth Industrial Exposition. Was selected for illustration in the exhibition catalogue. 

  • 1885

    Enrolls in drawing class at Cincinnati Art Academy (previously McMicken School of Drawing and Design)

     

    Travels with John Hauser to Europe—Antwerp, then Germany

  • 1886

    1886 Enrolls in Royal Academy, Munich, studies under Nikolaos Gyzis (master of classical techniques)

     

    Influenced by Wilhelm Liebl (alla prima technique) and his old friend Frank Duveneck (with whom he may have formally studied)

     

    Moves to Paris and enrolls in the Académie Julian

     

    He and Hauser live in Montmartre

     

  • 1888

    Returns to Cincinnati briefly and then travels back to Munich to study under Carl von Marr (plein air painting)

  • 1889

    In spring, leaves Munich for good, resettles in Cincinnati and resumes his old studio

  • 1890

    Helps found the Cincinnati Art Club

  • 1892

    February/March, travels to Havana, Cuba

     

    On June 16, he marries Addie Byram


    Takes a position at the Cincinnati Art Academy teaching life drawing

  • 1893

    With Addie in tow, visits New Mexico once more


    Joins John Hauser in Santa Fe, Sharp and he travel to the San Juan Pueblo to see the San Geronimo ceremonies (Harvest Dance and Turquoise Driller result) and then on to Taos

     

    Showed Going to the Races at World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago World's Fair

     

     

  • 1894

    Large exhibition (over a hundred canvases and watercolors) in his studio of Cincinnati-related subjects


    Also has first one-man show at Traxel and Maas Gallery, with about thirty mostly western (New Mexico) paintings included, and a major joint exhibition at the fourth annual Cincinnati Art Club show at the Cincinnati Art Museum


    In May, sells Cincinnati Art Museum his Harvest Dance for $500


    Studio partly filled with what he calls, in a 1925 letter to Butler, works by the “real old Masters,” Indian artisans


    Takes a two-year leave from his teaching duties


    Sails for Europe with Addie ( June 28) to take more classes at the Académie Julian (studies with Benjamin Constant and Jean-Paul Laurens), lives at 15 Rue Campagne in Paris

  • 1895

    In the spring, he meets up with Duveneck and goes to Spain and studies in the Prado Museum


    Receives a silver medal at the Académie Colarossi and exhibits three works in Paris Salon

  • 1896

    Paris Salon, exhibits Devant St. Antoine, Portrait of Mrs. J.H. Sharp, and LaParraseuse

     

    Returns from Europe with one hundred crates of paintings


    Enlarges his studio and hosts a one-man show, Studio of J. H. Sharp, in November–December


    Exhibits in Chicago with newly founded Society of Western Artists (Farny and Duveneck, founders, and Blumenschein, Hauser, Lundgren, and Sharp, members)

  • 1897

    Resumes teaching life class at Cincinnati Art Academy


    At end of term, sublets studio to Duveneck and makes his first of many annual summer trips back to Santa Fe and Taos

  • 1898

    Sets up his first studio in Taos

  • 1899

    Changes routine and travels to Crow Agency in Montana to paint for the summer


    Makes his first art sale to Joseph G. Butler, Jr. (the portrait Ogalalla Sioux Indian Scout probably from a Cincinnati Art Club exhibit
    in December)

  • 1900

    Butler buys eleven more paintings; Brush & Pencil publishes a long article on him and his art with eleven illustrations


    Visits the Sioux around Pine Ridge, South Dakota and then Seattle and Alaska in August (Seattle Post 8/7/00)


    October, traveling show of Indian portraits begins at the Cincinnati Museum, then to The Carnegie, Pittsburgh (Andrew Carnegie buys a portrait)


    November, presents exhibition in Sheridan, Wyoming (Sheridan Enterprise 10/27/00)


    Exhibits at the Paris Exposition

  • 1901

    January, displays portraits at the Detroit Museum of Art (Detroit News-Tribune 1/20/01), then in February, St. Louis Art Museum (St. Louis Globe 2/20/01)


    He and Addie spend part of summer among the Blackfeet


    August, is in Seattle exhibiting his painting and Mourning Her Brave is a sensation at Texas State Fair, Galveston


    Joins group of ethnographic artists including Herbert Vos, E. W. Deming, and F. A. Verner in a show at Ethnology Building at Pan-American Exposition in Buffalo, New York; wins a silver medal

     

    W. H. Holmes purchases eleven paintings from Sharp’s December Cosmos Club exhibition for Smithsonian Institution

     

    Phoebe A. Hearst purchased seventy-nine Indian portraits for the University of California, Berkeley


    Hearst also commissions him to paint fifteen more paintings per year for five years


    Exhibits one Indian portrait in Fine Arts Exhibition in 1900 Paris Exposition

  • 1902

    May, Sharp resigns from the Cincinnati Art Academy after ten years’ teaching there


    Visits Blackfeet, Sioux and Flathead tribes

     

    Electing to live among his subjects, a novel idea, he tries painting on Crow Agency (living at first at the Server Hotel) to fulfill
    Hearst commission


    Leases land at Agency for his future studio and house


    In the spring, the Sharps visit Henry’s sister in Pasadena, and establishes a studio at the rear of the house (which he uses off and on over many winters to come)


    Participates in joint exhibition at National Arts Club, New York; some critics begin to question the artistic quality of his portrait work … the theme too narrow (NY Sun 12/2/02)

  • 1903

    Joint exhibit travels to St. Botolph Club in Boston (Boston Herald 1/19/03)


    Dedicates first, small studio (10 by 14 feet) at Crow Agency


    Continues to paint among the Blackfeet and Flathead Indians

  • 1904

    Travels to California in May to show Hearst paintings to pick from (she selects twelve)


    Visits the Zuni and Navajo in the Southwest and the Shoshone and Arapaho in Wyoming


    October 29, reports that new, enlarged Montana studio in Crow Agency is ready (14 by 20 feet)

  • 1905

    Tries firelight scenes to add variety to his work (Letter to Koch 1/1/05) and finds them difficult; asks Duveneck for help


    In the spring, visits the Blackfeet again


    Over the summer and perhaps fall, he works on his house on Crow Agency, Absarokee Hut


    September, sees his first Crow Fair

  • 1906

    The Sharps start annual pattern of winter in Montana and summer in Taos, what he calls “our first love”


    July, to Grand Canyon, then San Francisco to repair Hearst’s paintings damaged by earthquake


    December, two firelight scenes are included in a favorable feature article (N Y Herald 12/23/06); The Gamblers and A Gift for Her Brave, both featured


    December, open one-man show at Fishel, Adler & Schwartz in New York City

  • 1907

    Exhibits again at Cosmos Club with assessment of a fine artist as well as an ethnographic painter (D C Evening Express 1/5/07)


    Buys land at Crow Agency


    Meets Charles Russell in Great Falls and would have seen his log cabin studio (built in 1903)


    September, visits Grand Canyon


    Visits Shoshone and Arapaho Reservation, Wyoming (letter to Gest 11/20/07)


    November, visits Fra Dana at her ranch, Parkman, WY

  • 1908

    February, first known mention of portable Montana sheep wagon studio, the “Prairie Dog”


    Buys former dance hall and djacent house on Kit Carson Road in Taos for his first house and studio, next door to Couse’s; land and house cost $480


    Important traveling exhibit goes to Cincinnati, Indianapolis, and St. Louis

  • 1909

    January, opens one-man show at Swan Gallery, Kansas City


    March, visits Helena, Montana, sells several works (Treasure State 3/6/09)


    March, holds exhibition in Sheridan, Wyoming


    Purchases the abandoned Juan de Luna family chapel from the Archbishop of the Diocese of Santa Fe. It became Sharp's first studio in Taos, known as the Studio of the Copper Bell

  • 1910

    Moves full-time to Taos; by June, has completed his “Chapel Studio,” and house “nearly so”


    Addie’s health begins to deteriorate


    Buys his sister’s house in Pasadena for winter stays (1481 Corson Street)

  • 1911

    March, sells King Gillette, Brooklyn, Massachusetts, nine portraits for $2,800

  • 1912

    Productive summer in Taos; completes The Stoic and Broken Bow (Sharp to Gest 10/3/12)


    Major exhibition at the University Club, Cincinnati (eighty-eight western works)

  • 1913

    Addie dies in April

     

    Invited to submit six canvases to Panama-California Expo (Sharp to Gest 10/19/14)

  • 1915

    Builds new studio in Taos


    Marries Louise Byram, Addie’s sister


    Founding member of Taos Society of Artists


    Exhibits major works in San Diego (Panama-California Exposition) and San Francisco (Panama-Pacific Exposition)

  • 1918

    Landscapes and floral compositions begin to dominate Sharp’s work

  • 1919

    December, writes Butler—bad health and won’t go to Montana this winter; goes to Pasadena instead

  • 1920

    Sharp praises new Museum of New Mexico for “encouraging all schools and ‘isms’” with its open-door policy

  • 1920

    First of many trips to Hawaii (others in 1932, ’34, ’35, ’37, and ’38)

  • 1921

    Ambassador Hotel in Santa Barbara burns and Sharp loses twelve to 115 paintings

  • 1922

    Sells Butler two large works, Ration Day and Young Chief’s Mission for the new museum

     

    Buys a car to avail himself of landscape painting opportunities

     

    December 27, he and Louise sail for Europe; France and Spain

  • 1923

    Last year Sharps spend winter at Crow Agency


    Sharp elected president of TSA but soon declines to serve

  • 1925

    Starts a series of self-portraits picturing him in his studio mirror

  • 1926

    John D. Rockefeller, Jr. visits Taos studio and purchases four paintings for nearly $1,000


    Makes final trip to Crow Agency for one hundredth anniversary of Battle of Little Big Horn; studio still standing


    Turns increasingly to still lifes because of eyesight problems

  • 1927

    Sells twenty-seven Indian portraits to Dr. Philip Cole


    Has show at Traxel Art Galleries in which floral paintings prevail

  • 1931

    Sends 95 old Indian portraits to his California agent, Grace Nicholson, for her to sell

  • 1933

    Sharp tells Carolyn Riebeth that he wishes to sell Crow Agency house; reports having had no art sales in three years


    Don Fernando Hotel in Taos burns down; Handyman, Alois, saves twenty-one of his paintings

  • 1934

    Sharp files quit-claim to sell Couse all his Taos property for $1; thereafter, the Couses to pay the Sharps a periodic fee for the rest of their lives and to take possession of his house and studio at Louise’s death

  • 1935

    Sells Crow Agency properties

  • 1939

    Oklahoma oilman Frank Phillips begins buying large numbers of Sharp’s Indian portraits and genre scenes

  • 1945

    Meets Oklahoma oilman, Thomas Gilcrease, for first time as a visitor to his Taos studio


    Gilcrease eventually buys 250 works by Sharp, along with many artifacts

  • 1949

    Gilcrease Foundation hosts a comprehensive retrospective exhibition comprising 236 paintings

  • 1952

    Leaves Taos in August for the last time, saying farewell to New Mexico (Santa Fe News 8/3/52)

  • 1953

    Dies in Pasadena, August 29, at 94 years old

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