Colarossi Prize
Gained by Cincinnati Artist, Avery Sharp is a Native of Ironton, Ohio
The Weekly Republican newspaper, 4 March 1893
The Cincinnati Post of this morning contains a portrait of Avery Sharp, the artist, and the following notice of his work:
“Cincinnati artists have again been honored in the bestowal upon one of their numbers of converted Paris prize.
The fortunate young man is none other than Avery N. Sharp, a handsome and talented graduate of the Cincinnati Art School. He comes from a family of artists, Henry Sharp, who ranks high among the wielders of the brush being his brother. They are natives of Ironton, Ohio. Avery is aged 24.
He went from Cincinnati to New York City, where he was a pupil of the Art Students League. Thence he went to Paris where, for two years, he has been an attendant at the celebrated night sessions of the Colarossi Ecole.
He is particularly strong in work from life, but the first prize silver medal, which he has just won, is for general merit. Avery is a leader among the American colony of artists in Paris.
He will return to America in June, and will be associated with his brother, Henry.”
The Cincinnati Enquirer, 3 May 1891
Cincinnati artists in Europe: Avery Sharp, who has been ill for some time in Munich, is convalescent and will go to Paris.
Cincinnati Enquirer, 26 March 1893
Mr. Avery Sharp, the artist, sails from Europe on Saturday, for Cincinnati.
Hamilton Evening Journal, 27 May 1893
Mr. and Mrs. J.H. Sharp and Avery Sharo of Cincinnati are here for a few days with Mrs. Sharp’s parents, S.D. Byram and his wife.
$1,500 BLAZE AT BILLINGS NORTHERN PACIFIC ICEHOUSE DESTROYED BY FLAMES. ARTIST J. HENRY SHARP IS WINNING FAME IN THE EAST.
The Butte Miner, Butte, Montana 30 Dec 1906
(Special Dispatch to the Miner.) – Billings, Dec. 29. – When the fire department of this city responded to an alarm last night they found one of the ice houses of the Northern Pacific Company In flames. It was too late for the firemen to save the building, and they turned their attention to the neighboring structures, all of which were saved, although they were seriously threatened.
There was no ice In the burned structure, although it was filled with sawdust, quite a valuable product In itself. No cause can be assigned for the fire except sparks from passing locomotives or perhaps spontaneous combustion of the sawdust. The amount of insurance could not be learned. The total value of the building and contents was about $1,500.
Fame for Sharp.
The large collection of paintings that were on exhibition during the past summer in the Billings club, courtesy of the artist and owner, J. Henry Sharp, is now on exhibition In New York, where the Herald recently devoted a full-page illustrated write-up of the collection.
Mr. Sharp has resided in Billings for some time, and still maintains a home at Crow agency, where he has fitted up one of the prettiest and most artistic cottages In the west. During the past fifteen years, and especially since his resignation as an instructor at the Cincinnati Art Academy, Mr. Sharp has given his undivided attention to the painting of Indians, their scenes, and the environment.
One of his large orders came from Mrs. Hearst, who commissioned the painting of a series of Indian portraits for the University of California. Since that time several of Mr. Sharp’s Indian portraits have been purchased by the national government in Washington. Several of the paintings shown at the local clubrooms last summer have been disposed of already in the east, notably among the sales being that of “The Gamblers” and “The Hunting Party.”
Before the collection was taken down, Mr. C. M. Blair, of this city, purchased the painting, “The Little Chief,” and presented it to the Billings club.
Annual Reception of the Los Angeles School of Art and Design
The Los Angeles Times, 6 May 1904
..There are to be one hundred pictures in the exhibition, the work of the famous artist, J. Henry Sharp. These are pictures of Indians, showing their home life and ceremonials. Mrs. Sharp is a sister of the later Charles Bryam, who was well-known in Los Angeles before his death, and she is also a niece of E. J. Bryam.
The Cincinnati Enquirer, 28 Oct. 1909
Friends of Artist J. Henry Sharp formerly of Cincinnati, yesterday received word from his home in the Crow Indian Agency that he has entirely recovered from optical trouble, due to a cinder that inflamed the eyeball. He will be hard at work in a few days., he announced in the epistle. He also gives the information that he has had a successful year in the sale of his pictures.
The Honolulu Advertiser, Honolulu, Hawaii 21 Nov 1937
JOSEPH HENRY SHARP, (Post Studio) A great and renowned artist, Joseph Henry Sharp, and his lovely wife are once, more winter visitors in Honolulu. He is internationally known as a depictor of Indian life in the West. In this field, he stands pre-eminent.
Mr.- Sharp has painted the most noted Indians of all tribes, particularly some 200 of the old Custer battle warriors, and in the last thirty-seven years many genres, historical, and home life sketches of Indians. A collection of eighty of his Indian portraits and pictures was purchased in 1902 by Mrs. Phoebe Hearst for the University of California, with a commission for fifteen more each year for five years, covering all the noted tribes.
Other collections including more than thirty Indian portraits and pictures are in the Butler Art Museum, Youngstown, Ohio; a group presented to the Smithsonian Museum by Victor Evans, and a collection owned by Dr. Phillip G. Cole of New York.
Mr. Sharp is represented in the Cincinnati Art Museum; Indianapolis Art Museum; Santa Fe Museum, and many public schools. His works are to be found in many private galleries, including those of Andrew Carnegie, John Davison Rockefeller Jr., Gustav Ador, former president of Switzerland; Madame Grosse of Dresden; Lady Holland of England; and Princess Eric of Denmark.
He has also been represented in exhibitions in Paris, and in all important cities in the United States. This gentle renowned painter has a studio and cabin at Crow Agency, Montana, at the foot of the Custer battlefields where he spends his winters. He has a summer home in Taos, New Mexico, and also one in California.
He is a member of all the noted art societies and has written his experiences for many magazines. He has, won innumerable medals and he has toured all the art centers of the Old World. He has studied under the world’s best painters. Today he is a painter at the top.
Mr. Sharp, full of vigor, is always on the alert for the new and the beautiful in art. That is one reason he comes to Hawaii. His success may be attributed to his enjoyment of painting, his love for the out-of-doors, and for sincere persevering hard work. In his paintings are to be found strength, color, a high note of poetry, undertones of beauty, and a perfect perception and perspective. – E.B.L.
Santa Fe Mexican, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 26 June 1940
Joseph Henry was born in Bridgeport, Ohio, in 1859. He received his early education in the public schools of Ironton, Ohio, and began studying art at the age of 14 at the McMicken School of Design, Cincinnati, Ohio…
He has painted the most noted Indians of all tribes, particularly some 200 of the old Custer battle warriors, together with many genres, historical, and home-life sketches of Indians.
A collection of 80 of his Indian portraits and pictures was purchased by the University of California… Sharp was the first artist of the Taos colony to paint there in 1893.
The Pomona Progress Bulletin
Pomona, California 31 Aug 1953,
0 Comments