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Joseph H. Sharp  1859 - 1953

 

Having been the first of them to visit the area in 1893, Joseph Sharp is often considered the father of the Taos Founders. But Sharp, trained in Cincinnati, Antwerp, Munich and Paris, had painted in Washington State, Arizona, California, Wyoming and Montana, where President Theodore Roosevelt had a studio built for Sharp near the site of Custer’s Last Stand. While there, Sharp painted over 200 portraits of Indians who had participated in that fateful engagement. Sharp moved permanently to Taos in 1912, embarking on a lengthy career painting faithfully accurate, richly hued, yet tonally moody works depicting pueblo life.

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