Sharp’s Art is extremely valuable.  It is. highly prized by Art lovers and historians because in addition to its Artistic value, it is among the very few visual records of that time of tremendous transformation and revolution.

The Eanger Irving Couse House and Studio—Joseph Henry Sharp Studios are within easy walking distance of Parsons Galleries in Downtown Historic Taos.  Parsons invites you to visit and enjoy.

Both Sharp’s first studio (built from the 1835 Luna Family Chapel) and Sharp’s second 1915 studio display exhibitions of his Art, ephemera, and Native art collections. They are also open to the public.

Mabel Dodge Luhan once explained what it's like to visit Taos: "Everyone is surprised at that first view of Taos Valley - it is so beautiful. The mountains, eighteen miles away, curve half round it in a crescent, and the desert lies within its dark encircling grasp. Taos is an oasis, emerald-green beyond the sagebrush, drinking water from the high mountain lakes and streams."

Joseph H. Sharp (1859-1953) was known for his photo realistic depictions of the many Native Americans’ cultures.  Called the "father of the Taos art colony”,  he was always fascinated by Indian culture.  And most importantly, the Native Americans liked Sharp, and revealed their hidden cultures and treasures to him. He had a special “gentle presence”,  perhaps the result of his deafness.  He was always silent, respectful and humble.  He saw our Native Americans “as a human beings, endowed with intelligence, swayed by nobility of thought.”  His photographic accuracy in depicting the various tribes--in  costumes, facial arrangements, fetishes, artifacts, ceremonial objects and other Native faces, make his work among the most highly prized.

JH Sharp said: ""The Voice of the Great Spirit is heard in every breeze that stirs the grasses"

"(I try) to present the Indian as he is…. mentally as well as physically:

not as empheral fiction has delighted to picture him, but as a human being, endowed with intelligence, swayed by nobility of thought…"

Considered the "Spiritual Father" of the Taos Society of Artists, he said. "I was always interested [in Native Indian Americans] 

. . . It was the romance of youth, of boyhood, I suppose.

Then when I came to know them I liked them for themselves. Perhaps they attracted me as subjects to paint because of their important historical value as the first Americans. Then the color of their costumes and dances, this no less attracted me." "If I don't paint them [the Native Indian Americans] no one ever will."

In 1893 J.H. Sharp became the first of the Taos Society of Artists to visit Taos.  This early trip was a pivotal moment for the future of Art in Taos.   Sharp, upon returning to Paris, described the exotic high desert New Mexican village of Taos to fellow Academie Julian students, Ernest Blumenschein and Bert Phillips. This inspired their decision to visit Taos and led to the founding of Taos as an Art Colony.

Sharp was born in Bridgeport, Ohio, from Irish immigrant parents.  He demonstrated exceptional Artistic talent from an early age.  But he gradually lost his hearing from a swimming accident and traditional schooling became increasingly difficult. At fourteen he moved to his aunt's house in Cincinnati, OH, to work, while also enrolling part-time in art classes at Mickmicken School of Design and the Cincinnati Art Academy. The move to Cincinnati was precipitated by the unexpected death of his father when he was just 12. Sharp sent most of his earnings back to his mother.  Sharpe died on August 29, 1953 at Pasadena, CA, and is buried at Friends Burial Ground, Dublin, Ireland

Sharp was classically educated in Europe at the Academie Julian studying under Benjamin-Constant and Jules-Joseph Lefebvre.  He studied at The Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp and Royal Academy of Fine Arts. Later he returned to Ohio where he accepted a teaching position at the Cincinnati Art Academy and soon established himself as a first class portraitist.  In 1883 Sharp first visited New Mexico and the American Southwest, although he did not at that time visit Taos. Later in the year he received a commission from Harper's Weekly to paint life within the Taos Pueblo, and his work was very well received. Sharp had befriended E.I. Couse, Ernest Blumenschein and Bert Phillips in Paris, who were similarly affected by the young artist's tales and pictures of an exotic and fascinating land.

Returning to the United States, Sharp continued his teaching, working as an illustrator, and spending time in Montana painting the Plains Indians. 1900 was a critical year for Sharp. Some of his Plains Indians portraits were exhibited in Paris and Washington, D.C., and gained the attention of Theodore Roosevelt. Roosevelt then commissioned Sharp to paint some 200 portraits of the survivors of the Battle of Little Bighorn. Sharp and his wife settled in a studio / cabin (built for them by Roosevelt) at the river juncture near the famous battle site. And then, just two years into his Plains painting venture, Phoebe Hearst (mother of William Randolph Hearst) bought 80 his works. This allowed the artist financial independence and the ability to paint full-time.

New Mexico seduced Sharp, and he and his wife spent some of their summers in the familiar mountainous desert. In 1912, he found the lure of the land was too great, and the couple relocated to Taos permanently. In the same year Sharp also became a charter member of the Taos Society of Artists, where he was known for his wit, patience, and spiritual depth. By all reckonings, Sharp achieved great success during his illustrious career, and he continued to paint and travel the world well into his 80s.  In 1949, just four years before his death, the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, OK, honored Sharp with an exhibition of his work, a celebration of a man whose artistic acuity and drive for preservation will long be remembered.

The subjects of Joseph Henry Sharp art works included the human figure, portraits, Human head images, faces, portrait heads, Human Activity, Indian Figure Prior to 1940, Native Americans, North American Pioneers, Beach Scenes, Bathers, Swimming, American Indians, Cowboys, Pioneers, Horses, mammals, animals, Barnyard Fowl, Chickens, Roosters, Still Lifes, Floral Landscapes and Wildflowers, Seascapes, skyscapes, Coastal and Shoreline Views, Gardens and Garden Scenes, Historical Figures, Sites and Events, Floral Still Lifes, Floral Motifs and Flowers, Landscapes, Riverfronts, Boats and Canoes, Snow scenes, Winter scapes and national and state parks.

Academie Julian

The Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp

Art Academy of Cincinnati

Cincinnati Academy of Art (Teacher)

McMicken School of Design

Munich Academy of Fine Arts

Royal Academy

Some of the places he lived and worked include Paris before 1900, the Pacific Northwest Before 1900, Southern California Before 1900, Missouri River Valley Before 1900, Minnesota and Upper Mississippi Before 1900, Italy Before World War I, California Before 1940, Taos and New Mexico Before 1940, Arizona Before 1945, Europe, Glacier National Park, Grand Canyon, Arizona, Hawaiian Islands and South Seas and Tahiti.

Joseph Henry Sharps' teachers include Benjamin Jean-Joseph Constant , Jean Paul Laurens, Karl Von Marr,  Frank Duveneck and Charles Verlat.

Sharp, the "spiritual father of the Taos Art Colony",  is known for his photographic realism and his portraits of Indian figures and landscapes.

On Sept. 27, 1859 Joseph Henry Sharp was born in Bridgeport, Ohio.

Beginning in his youth, he showed great interest in Indian Culture.

An unfortunate boyhood swimming accident and near drowning burdened him with gradual progressive deafness.

In 1873, at age 14, he began his studies at the McMicken School of Drawing and Design in Cincinnati and then the Cincinnati Academy of Art.

It was instrumental in his development that there he met the great Henry Farny who showed him books about Indian culture.

He attended the Antwerp Academy in 1882 at age 22 studying under Charles Verlat.

He then moved back to Ohio and accepted a teaching position at the Cincinnati Art Academy.

He was one of the first of the great artists that would travel to New Mexico.

In 1878 Sharp became a member of the Etching Club formed in Cincinnati.

In 1879 he exhibited at An Artist’s Attic in the Cincinnati Industrial Exposition.

In 1881 Sharp traveled to Europe and enrolled, at the age twenty-two, in Academy of Fine Arts, Antwerp.

He then studied with portrait master Charles Verlat, who taught an Antiek (classical antiquities) class in 1881 and a Natur (life) class in 1882.

In 1882 moved back to Cincinnati and rented a studio in Ogden Building (Whittredge’s old studio), at 30 W. Fourth Street.

Then he started to be influenced by Henry Farny.

Traveling West for the first time in 1883, (at the age of 24) he ventured to Santa Fe, New Mexico, California, Arizona, and Wyoming sketching the Indians and their Pueblos.

In 1884 he entered Art Work in The Neophyte in Cincinnati's Twelfth Industrial Exposition. He was chosen for illustration in the exhibition catalogue.

In 1885 he began studying in drawing class at Cincinnati Art Academy (previously McMicken School of Drawing and Design).

He then voyaged with John Hauser to Europe—Antwerp, and then Germany.

In 1886 he began to study at the Royal Academy, Munich,  under Nikolaos Gyzis (master of classical techniques).

Then in 1886 he returned to Europe to study under Karl Von Marr at the Academy in Munich.

He explored Spain and Italy with Frank Duveneck, famous Cincinnati artist.

In 1888 for a brief time he returned to Cincinnati and then journeyed back to Munich to study under Carl von Marr (plein air painting).

In the spring of 1889 he left Munich for good to resettle in Cincinnati at his old studio.

In 1890 he was part of founding the Cincinnati Art Club.

In the 1890s he became a student at the Académie Julian in Paris where he studied with Jean Paul Laurens and Benjamin Constant.  It was there that he met Ernest L Blumenshein and Bert Geer Phillips.  He then became a student at The Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp.

In 1892 Sharp returned again to Cincinnati and married his sweetheart Addie Byram on June 16.  He taught at the Art Academy of Cincinnati teaching life drawing.

In 1893, with his wife Addie he returned to New Mexico once again.

He went to the San Juan Pueblo to see the San Geronimo ceremonies (Harvest Dance and Turquoise Driller are paintings that resulted).

He showed Going to the Races at World's Columbian Exposition, Chicago World's Fair.

Then, in 1893, along with John Hauser, Sharp traveled west to sketch and made his first visit to Taos New Mexico.

His ground breaking sketches of Taos Pueblo were published in Harper's Weekly.

In 1894 he showed over a hundred canvases and watercolors in his studio of Cincinnati-related subjects.

He gave his first one-man show at Traxel and Maas Gallery, with about 30 primarily western (New Mexico) paintings shown, and he had a major joint exhibition at the fourth annual Cincinnati Art Club show at the Cincinnati Art Museum.

He traveled to Europe In 1885 with John Hauser.

He took a two-year leave of absence from his teaching duties.

In 1896 he won a silver medal at the Académie Colarossi and exhibited three works in Paris Salon.

In 1896 the Paris Salon exhibited Devant St. Antoine, Portrait of Mrs. J.H. Sharp, and LaParraseuse.

Returns from Europe with one hundred crates of paintings

In November–December he gave a one-man show, Studio of J. H. Sharp.

In 1897 he returned to teaching life class at Cincinnati Art Academy.

He then takes his first of many annual summer trips back to Santa Fe and Taos, New Mexico.

In 1898 he started his first studio in Taos.

In 1899 he went on to Montana, camping at the battlefield of Little Big Horn and sketching the Sioux and Crow Indian warriors.

In 1900  Brush & Pencil published a hefty article on him and his art works with eleven illustrations.

In November, he showed in Sheridan, Wyoming and exhibited at the Paris Exposition.

In the 1890s, he studied abroad with Frank Duveneck in Italy.

In 1900 Theodore Roosevelt discovered Shapes’ works. He arraigned important commissions for the artist.  Roosevelt ordered that a house and studio for Sharp be built at the Custer Battlefield site.

 Sharp resided at his studio in Montana in 1901 and worked to "make a visual record of Indians who had fought against Custer."  He recorded members of the Pueblo, Umatilla, Klikitat, Shoshone and Ute Indian tribes.

In January of 1901 he showed  portraits at the Detroit Museum of Art.  Sharp and his wife Addie spend part of that summer among the Blackfeet.

In May of 1902 he resigned from the Cincinnati Art Academy after completing ten years’ teaching there.

From 1892 to 1902 he was a teacher at the Cincinnati Art Academy.

In 1903 his joint exhibition traveled to St. Botolph Club in Boston.

He began his first, small studio (10 by 14 feet) at Crow Agency,

and continued to paint among the Blackfeet and Flathead Indians.

In May1904, he ventured  to California, showing Pheobe  Hearst paintings.

He went on to visit the Zuni and Navajo in the Southwest and the Shoshone and Arapaho Tribes in Wyoming.

In 1905 Sharp along with his wife Addie constructed a cabin - called Absarokee Hut.

In 1906

the Sharps began to winter in Montana and then summer in Taos, which he called “our first love”.

In December, he exhibited in a one-man show at Fishel, Adler & Schwartz in New York City.

In 1908 Sharp bought a studio in Taos, near to the EI Couse Studio, which had previously served as an old Penitente chapel.

The Land and Chappel cost $480.

The Eanger Irving Couse House and Studio—Joseph Henry Sharp Studios, also known as the Couse/Sharp Historic Site are within easy walking distance of Parsons Galleries in Historic Downtown Taos.  Parsons invites you to visit.

In January 1909 he had one-man show at Swan Gallery, Kansas City.

In March,  he visited Helena, Montana, selling several works.

In March, he gave and exhibition in Sheridan, Wyoming.

And in that year he purchaseed the Penitente Chapel in Taos for $250.

But in 1910 Addie’s health began to deteriorate.

By 1912 Sharp and Addie had moved to Taos permanently.

In 1912 he had a major exhibition at the University Club, Cincinnati (including eighty-eight western works)

He lived across the street from Kit Carson's homesite.

In April, 1913, Sharps’ wife Addie died.

In 1915 he was a founder of the Taos Society of Artists.

In 1915 he married Louise, sister of Addie.

Beginning  in 1915 he started the first of what would become fifteen annual auctions in his home town of Cincinnati.

Then he exhibited major works in San Diego (Panama-California Exposition) and San Francisco (Panama-Pacific Exposition).

He was called the "Spiritual Father" of the Taos Society of Artists.

By 1918 landscapes and floral compositions begin to dominate his work.

In the 1920s he bought a winter home in Pasadena, California.

From there his work led him to create landscapes and floral compositions.

In the 1920s he took the first of his many trips to Hawaii (he also went in 1932, ’34, ’35, ’37, and ’38)

On December 27, 1922., he and Louise set sail for Europe, France and Spain

In 1926 he began producing  still lifes because of eyesight problems.

In 1927 he  showed at Traxel Art Galleries  (floral paintings prevail).

In 1927 the Taos Society of Artists disbanded.

The Great Depression had left the Taos artists unable to sell their works.

In the 1930s he traveled to and vacationed in Hawaii, with his second wife, Louise.

In 1933, the Don Fernando Hotel in Taos burned down, but his special friend and handyman, Alois, saveed twenty-one of his paintings.

In 1949 Shape was honored with an exhibition of his work by the Gilcrease Museum in Tulsa, OK. (a comprehensive retrospective exhibition comprising 236 paintings).

Sharpe shut down and permanently closed his Taos Studio at age 93.

In August, for the last time, he left his beloved Taos, saying farewell to New Mexico.

He later died in Pasadena, California on Aug. 29, 1953.

Amon Carter Museum

Anschutz Collection

Buffalo Bill Historical Center

Birmingham Museum of Art

Butler Institute of American Art

C.M. Russell Museum

C. R. Smith Collection-Western

Carl S. Dentzel Collection

Cincinnati Art Museum

Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center

Figge Art Museum

Denver Art Museum

Desert Caballeros Western Museum

Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art

El Paso Museum of Art

Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art at the University of Oklahoma

Gilcrease Museum

Great Plains Art Museum

Harmsen Western Art Collection

Honolulu Academy of Arts

Hubbell Trading Post National Historic Site

Indianapolis Museum of Art

Jack S Blanton Museum of Art

Jersey City Museum

John F Eulich Collection

Jonson Gallery of University of New Mexico

Joslyn Art Museum

Museum of Fine Arts-Montana

Museum of New Mexico

Museum of The Southwest

National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum

Orlando Museum of Art

Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum

Picerne Arizona Landmark Collection

Phoenix Art Museum

Rockwell Museum of Western Art

Roswell Museum and Art Center

Sangre De Cristo Arts Center

Santa Fe Railroad

Smithsonian American Art Museum

Southwest Museum

Springville Museum of Art

Stark Museum of Art

Terra Foundation for American Art

The Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art

The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art

Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

Virtual Museum of Canada

Whitney Gallery of Western Art at the Buffalo Bill Historical Center

William Foxley Collection-Western

Woolaroc Museum

Worcester Art Museum

Yellowstone Art Museum

The Stoic (1914)

Crow Reservation - Teepees and Indians (Sweat Lodge) (1920)

Fine Bull

Grand Canyon

Hunting Son (1926)

Sidi-bou-Said, (Tunisia)

The Chanters (circa 1930)

"Montana Blackfoot Indian"

"Fireside Indian"

"Teepee Smoke"

"Joseph Henry Sharp Oil Painting" ca. 1920

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