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24012

JOSEPH HENRY SHARP- Jerry - Oil on Canvas

Currency:USD Category:Art Start Price:120,000.00 USD Estimated At:160,000.00 - 180,000.00 USD
JOSEPH HENRY SHARP- Jerry - Oil on Canvas
<B>JOSEPH HENRY SHARP</B></I> (American 1859-1953)<BR><I>Jerry</B></I><BR>Oil on canvas<BR>20 x 16 inches (50.8 x 40.6 cm)<BR>Signed lower left:<I> JHSHARP</B></I><BR>Titled on stretcher bar on verso: <I>Jerry</B></I><BR><BR>Provenance:<BR>Forest Fenn;<BR>Dorothy and William Harmsen, Sr. (Denver, Colorado) <BR><BR>The painting features Jerry Mirabel (also known as Elk Foot and Túmenah), who was Sharp's favorite model and close friend. Over the course of the period 1913-1949, Mirabel posed for numerous portraits and scenes depicting tribal rituals. He died in 1980 at the age of 110. According to Forest Fenn, upon Mirabel's death “the Indians went into mourning and the pueblo was closed to all outsiders for three days" (<I>The Beat of the Drum and the Whoop of the Dance: A Study of the Life and Work of Joseph Henry Sharp</B></I> Sante Fe, New Mexico, Fenn Publishing Company, 1983 , p. 237).<BR><BR>The painting features Jerry Mirabel (also known as Elk Foot and Túmenah), who was Sharp's favorite model and close friend. Over the course of the period 1913-1949, Mirabel posed for numerous portraits and scenes depicting tribal rituals. He died in 1980 at the age of 110. According to Forest Fenn, upon Mirabel's death 'the Indians went into mourning and the pueblo was closed to all outsiders for three days' (<I>The Beat of the Drum and the Whoop of the Dance: A Study of the Life and Work of Joseph Henry Sharp</B></I> Santa Fe, New Mexico, Fenn Publishing Company, 1983 , p. 237).<BR><BR> Sharp established a reputation for his ability to render the distinctive facial features of the various tribes he pictured, as well as their individual costumes, artifacts and ceremonies. He created numerous half-length portraits of Native American men standing in three-quarter profile attired in feather bonnets and hide clothing. Sarah E. Boehme has noted that in these and related portraits beadwork and 'other characteristics of Indian design are evident on the clothing, but details are softened because Sharp painted with a loose style, using relatively broad, free brushstrokes ('The North and Snow: J. H. Sharp in Montana,' <I>Montana</B></I> 49 Autumn 1990 : 35).<BR><BR>Sharp wrote of his high regard for Native Americans: 'Most of the Indian painters of the last sixty years have painted the Indians as they are now, or in battle, horse rustling . . . and ignored their legends, sentiments, and home life. <I> try to present the Indian as he is . . . mentally as well as physically; not as ephemeral fiction has delighted to picture him, but as a human being, endowed with intelligence, swayed by nobility of thought, venerated by indolence, animated by craftiness, or calmed by reveries of bygone days' (Sharp is quoted in Forrest Fenn, <I>The Beat of the Drum and the Whoop of the Dance: A Study of the Life and Work of Joseph Henry Sharp</B></I> Sante Fe, New Mexico, Fenn Publishing Company, 1983 , p. 249). <B>Condition Report:</B> Minor inpainting in upper right corner, overall less than one inch--otherwise excellent original condition<BR><BR><b>Shipping:</b> Requires 3rd Party Shipping (<a target="_blank" href="http://www.heritageauctions.com/common/shipping.php">view shipping information</a>)
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