1859
Joseph Henry Sharp born in Bridgeport, Ohio, September 27
Joseph Henry Sharp born in Bridgeport, Ohio, September 27
Enrolls, at age fourteen, in McMicken School of Drawing and Design, Cincinnati
Etching Club formed in Cincinnati. Sharp is a member.
Exhibits An Artist’s Attic in the Cincinnati Industrial Exposition
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
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
Travels west for the first time—Santa Fe, Albuquerque, Tucson, California, and Northwest Coast
Entered The Neophyte in Cincinnati's Twelfth Industrial Exposition. Was selected for illustration in the exhibition catalogue.
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 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
Returns to Cincinnati briefly and then travels back to Munich to study under Carl von Marr (plein air painting)
In spring, leaves Munich for good, resettles in Cincinnati and resumes his old studio
Helps found the Cincinnati Art Club
February/March, travels to Havana, Cuba
On June 16, he marries Addie Byram
Takes a position at the Cincinnati Art Academy teaching life drawing
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
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
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
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)
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
Sets up his first studio in Taos
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)
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
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
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)
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
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)
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
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
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
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
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 Penitente Chapel in Taos for $250
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)
March, sells King Gillette, Brooklyn, Massachusetts, nine portraits for $2,800
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)
Addie dies in April
Invited to submit six canvases to Panama-California Expo (Sharp to Gest 10/19/14)
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)
Landscapes and floral compositions begin to dominate Sharp’s work
December, writes Butler—bad health and won’t go to Montana this winter; goes to Pasadena instead
Sharp praises new Museum of New Mexico for “encouraging all schools and ‘isms’” with its open-door policy
First of many trips to Hawaii (others in 1932, ’34, ’35, ’37, and ’38)
Ambassador Hotel in Santa Barbara burns and Sharp loses twelve to 115 paintings
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
Last year Sharps spend winter at Crow Agency
Sharp elected president of TSA but soon declines to serve
Starts a series of self-portraits picturing him in his studio mirror
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
Sells twenty-seven Indian portraits to Dr. Philip Cole
Has show at Traxel Art Galleries in which floral paintings prevail
Sends 95 old Indian portraits to his California agent, Grace Nicholson, for her to sell
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
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
Sells Crow Agency properties
Oklahoma oilman Frank Phillips begins buying large numbers of Sharp’s Indian portraits and genre scenes
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
Gilcrease Foundation hosts a comprehensive retrospective exhibition comprising 236 paintings
Leaves Taos in August for the last time, saying farewell to New Mexico (Santa Fe News 8/3/52)
Dies in Pasadena, August 29, at 94 years old