Lot 1118: Joseph Henry Sharp Watercolor Portrait of a Child, 1884

Joseph Henry Sharp (American, 1859-1953) watercolor on paper laid to canvas bust length portrait of a little girl with curly brown hair and blue eyes, in white lace dress. Signed lower right “JH Sharp” and dated 1884. Housed in an oval molded giltwood frame. Sight: 19 1/2 in. H x 15 in. W. Frame: 24 1/2 in. H x 20 in. W. Note: This painting dates very early in the career of Joseph Henry Sharp, who would become best known as the Father of the Taos Art Colony and for his Native American figure and genre paintings and colorful landscapes. It was painted shortly after he first arrived in Santa Fe in 1883 at the age of 24. Sharp had become deaf at the age of 14. He left public school to study art in Cincinnati at the McMicken School and the Cincinnati Academy of Art, and from age 22 to 24, he studied art in Belgium under Charles Verlat, before heading to the American West. He returned to Europe in 1886 and later Cincinnati, but in 1893 he moved to Taos, NM. There, he devoted himself to portraying the vanishing culture of the American Indian and the Old West, one of America’s most significant art careers of the 20th century. 

CONDITION: Heavy toning to paper, light fading. Frame in good condition.