Joseph Henry Sharp (American, 1859-1953) Oil on Canvas 

California Chrysanthemums
signed lower right, titled in pencil on verso
(sight, original gilt and gesso Southwestern frame) 19.5 x 23.5 in.

While Joseph Henry Sharp was widely regarded as a painter of the American Indian, he is only recently being celebrated for his still life paintings. A recent publication- In Poetic Silence: The Floral Paintings of Joseph Henry Sharp (2010)- a work by Thomas Minckler, shows evidence of a prolific output of the artist's magnificent studies of flowers in bloom. Sharp employed the same impressionist technique to his Western still lifes as he did with his loose Indian subjects.

This particular work has an entertaining family story. It was purchased from the artist and descended in the same family until the present day.  James Stagner and Leona Louise Stagner, newly married in 1929 in Carlsbad, NM, decided they would like to buy a painting from the Taos artist. While Mr. Stagner wished to have an Indian picture, the family story goes that Mrs. Stagner claimed she ran a "floral" home. Therefore, they bought California Chrysanthemums.

A copy of the book, In Poetic Silence: The Floral Paintings of Joseph Henry Sharp, accompanies this lot.

The painting is in completely untouched condition. The canvas has never been lined, and the original cardboard backing, titled by the artist, remains nailed into the stretcher. The painting has a slight surface film, but is in well preserved and stretched condition. The frame is certainly original. Some tiny chips to corners of frame.