Lot 221
  • 221

Joseph Henry Sharp

Estimate
70,000 - 90,000 USD
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Description

  • Joseph Henry Sharp
  • Sharp's Studio Garden, Taos, New Mexico
  • signed J.H. Sharp, l.r.
  • oil on canvas
  • 20 by 16 in.
  • 50.8 by 40.7 cm.

Provenance

Fenn Galleries, Santa Fe

Condition

Canvas is not lined. SURFACE: in good condition; scattered craquelure (work is painted with thick impasto) --linear diagonal lines of crackle at upper right (in front of home's upper level) UNDER ULTRA VIOLET: scattered spots of inpaint in sky (some of it for diagonal crackle mentioned above)
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Catalogue Note

Sharp moved to Taos permanently in 1908, buying a home on Kit Carson Road, just next door to fellow artist and friend, E.I. Couse and across the street from where the famous scout, Kit Carson lived.

His first studio was an old, abandoned chapel of the Penitente sect which had been built in the 1830s and was located behind his house.  He purchased it from the Catholic Church for $240.  Soon after, he came across an old copper bell at the Taos Pueblo which he purchased for $100, hung above the chapel roof and christened the place, "The Studio of the Copper Bell".

By 1915, the circumstances of his life had changed somewhat and he built the larger, two-story building adjacent to his home depicted here.  This remained his studio until the end of his life.  His living and working area was a perfect place for Sharp, who relished the sense of history of the place and loved the natural setting which surrounded it.  He often painted the local flora and even wrote a poem, "Hollyhock Ladies" years later while in a whimsical mood.

In his biography of Sharp, Teepee Smoke, Forrest Fenn writes that the artist's "home and studio were filled with paintings, artifacts and antiques.  Sharp lived and worked in surroundings overflowing with history.....  The Penitente chapel was converted to a storeroom when his new studio was finished in 1915.  Located just southwest of his home, the new studio was a two-story structure with a narrow, unguarded staircase that climbed the west wall to a mezzanine, which was enclosed by a log railing.  Beside a kiva fireplace in the south wall, he fashioned a special window; the window was round but on the inside it has a square frame, enabling him to show it on his canvases as either round or square to get the composition or feeling he desired.  The model's platform could be easily moved toward the window or the fireplace, depending on whether sunlight or firelight was appropriate." (Forrest Fenn, Teepee Smoke:  A New Look into the Life and Work of Joseph Henry Sharp, Santa Fe, 2007, p 223)

In Sharp's Studio and Garden, the viewer's eye is drawn into the image by the rich profusion of pastel-colored foliage at the lower left and up the rutted edge of the garden to the colorfully garbed Pueblo woman leaning against the wall, the ladder in front of her and then to the pellucid blue sky and deep green in the trees beyond.  Using his characteristic loose, energetic brushstrokes applied in a soft pastel palette and broken gently with touches of more vivid color, the artist imparts both atmospheric warmth and a sense of three-dimensionality to the picture.  The result is a privileged look into the artist's personal world, a quotidian moment on a quiet, sunny Taos morning.