Joseph Henry Sharp was educated in a public school in Ironton, Ohio, where he was raised. At age 14, he was forced to leave the public school because of an accident which rendered him deaf. He went on to study art at McMiccen Art Academy and later attended the Cincinnati Art Academy. In 1883, he made his first trip west traveling to New Mexico, California, and the Columbia River. On this trip, he sketched the numerous Indian tribes in an effort to document their disappearing cultures.

In 1901, Sharp worked for the Crow Agency (of the U.S. Government) and built a studio near Custer battlefield in Montana. He was commissioned to create a visual documentary of the Native Americans that opposed Custer. During this time, he painted over 200 portraits of Native Americans and photographed over 400 more. Sharp established permanent residence in Taos in 1912.

Later in his career, eleven of his paintings of famous Native Americans were purchased by the US government and hung in the Smithsonian Institute. A collection of 80 Indian portraits were purchased in 1902 by the University of California. Sharp is also one of the founders of the Taos Society of Artists, where he specialized in American Indian subjects and was an accomplished illustrator.

Further Reading: Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America, Vol. 1. Peter Hastings Falk, Georgia Kuchen and Veronica Roessler, eds.,Sound View Press, Madison, Connecticut, 1999. 3 Vols.; Artists in California, 1786-1940, Edan Milton Hughes, Hughes Publishing, San Francisco, 1986.; The Illustrated Biographical Encyclopedia of Artists of the American West, Peggy and Harold Samuels, Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, New York, 1976.

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