Joseph Henry Sharp (American, 1859-1953). "View from the Artist's Studio Montana, The Crow Reservation" oil on canvas, ca. 1901-1905. A very special landscape painting by Joseph Henry Sharp, presenting a view from his log cabin, named Absarokee Hut by the artist, which served as both his home and studio during his years on the Crow Reservation in Montana. In the artist's words, "I have built…my 'hut' in just this spot because I wanted to paint the winter landscape here as well as the Indians," Sharp stated, "to paint them day after day and month after month." The composition presents green grass dotted by trees across the groundline, a silhouette of blue ridged mountains in the distance, and the big, open Montana sky above. Size of painting: 13.5" L x 19.5" W (34.3 cm x 49.5 cm) Size of frame: 18.875" L x 24.7" W (47.9 cm x 62.7 cm)

J. H. Sharp would go on to be a founding father of the Taos Artist colony, beginning in 1912, and specialize in portraits of Native Americans as well as larger compositions that documented their ways of life. Although a childhood hearing loss impeded Sharp's traditional education in his native Bridgeport, Ohio, he excelled in the visual arts and enrolled in the McMicken School of Design in Cincinnati when only 14 years old. According to the Smithsonian American Art Museum, "In 1881 he went off to Europe, the first of three study trips abroad, each of which was followed by visits to New Mexico and the Columbia River basin. He spent part of the summer of 1893 in Taos and passed on word of its artistic resources to Ernest Blumenschein and Bert Phillips, whom he had met in Paris in 1895. For two decades, he divided his time between teaching at the Cincinnati Art Academy, sketching in the Northwest, and summering at Taos, where he finally established a permanent residence in 1912. Sharp was a charter member of the Taos Society of Artists, with which he exhibited for many years. His favorite subject was the Indian and his fast-disappearing lifestyle. Sharp drew and painted with a facility and accuracy that gave his work ethnographic as well as artistic value."

On the verso of the painting is a letter written by Harold McCracken, Director, Buffalo Bill History Center on July 22, 1967 addressed to George Kolbe, a former owner of the painting, in which McCracken states that the painting was created "by J.H. Sharp in his studio at the Crow Reservation, Montana, sometime between 1901 & 1905."

This piece has been searched against the Art Loss Register database and has been cleared. The Art Loss Register maintains the world’s largest database of stolen art, collectibles, and antiques.

Provenance: ex-Denenberg Fine Arts, Los Angeles, California USA; ex-private Helen and William Georgenes collection, Santa Fe, New Mexico, USA; ex Charles Putney collection; ex George Kolbe collection; ex Richard I. Frost collection, Curator of the Buffalo Bill collection, Cody, Wyoming, USA

All items legal to buy/sell under U.S. Statute covering cultural patrimony Code 2600, CHAPTER 14, and are guaranteed to be as described or your money back.

A Certificate of Authenticity will accompany all winning bids.

We ship worldwide to most countries and handle all shipping in-house for your convenience.

#164842

Painting is in excellent condition, save slight stains. Chips to frame finish as shown. Wired for suspension and ready to display.