Joseph Henry Sharp (1859-1953) Leaf Down - Taos Indian Girl signed 'J.H. Sharp' (lower right), signed again and titled (on an original board backing on the reverse) oil on canvas 20 x 24in framed 27 1/4 x 31 1/4in Painted circa 1928. Footnotes: Provenance Fenn Galleries Ltd., Santa Fe, New Mexico, no. PA-3055. Mitchell Brown Fine Art, Inc., Santa Fe, New Mexico. Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico. Acquired by the present owner from the above. Exhibited Wickenburg, Desert Caballeros Western Museum, Masters of Western Art 1900-2000, November 6, 1999 - January 16, 2000. Provo, Brigham Young University, Visions of the Southwest from the Diane and Sam Stewart Art Collection, February 11, 2009 - July 3, 2009. Salt Lake City, Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Bierstadt to Warhol: American Indians in the West, February 15 – August 11, 2013. Literature (possibly) F. Fenn, The Beat of the Drum and the Whoop of the Dance: A Study of the Life and Work of Joseph Henry Sharp, Santa Fe, Fenn Publishing Co., 1983, no. 2393, p. 330 (as 'Leaf Down (Taos Girl)'). The artist writes on an original cardboard backing affixed verso: 'Leaf Down - Taos Indian Girl / Hopi Bride Dres (sic) - and Basket / Dress made from cotton raised by the Indians before / Spaniards came - the wool embroidery later - / Dress an oblong square 'blanket', over one arm and under / other - pinned down side with - silver pins / One of my very best firelights - J.H. Sharp - Taos, / & Pasadena - Nov. 1944'. We wish to thank Dr. Marie Watkins for her kind assistance with cataloging the lot. Joseph Henry Sharp's Leaf Down – Taos Indian Girl is a superb example of his mature techniques as a painter, as well as his mastered ability to capture the likeness of Native Americans. Sharp is recognized today as one of American art history's most beloved painters of Native Americans and the American West with an oeuvre spanning more than six decades. He is also widely considered the spiritual father of the Taos Art Colony and through his friendships with Ernest Blumenschein, Bert Geer Phillips, Eanger Irving Couse among others, the colony eventually formed in Taos, New Mexico. Sharp was born in Bridgeport, Ohio on September 27, 1859 to Irish immigrant parents, and from an early age, became fascinated with the life of Native Americans. He was completely deaf from an unfortunate childhood accident and, at age fourteen, because of the struggles he faced with his disability, he left public school entirely to study art in Cincinnati at the McMicken School and the Cincinnati Academy of Art. The studio he painted in happened to be in the same building occupied by the artist Henry Farny and the two quickly met and became friends. Farny had many books in his studio illustrating and describing the life of Pueblo Indians, often lending them to Sharp, and the two discussed his interest in the way Native Americans lived and dressed. In 1893, Sharp first went to Taos, and his sketches from the trip were eventually published in Harper's Weekly. He began making frequent summer trips west to sketch Native Americans and the landscape and in 1902, he ventured to Arizona, California, Wyoming, and Montana to paint. By 1912, Sharp was a permanent resident of Taos and began amassing an extensive personal collection of Native American artifacts and costume, as seen in the present work. Sharp found a great deal of importance that the artifacts he collected be preserved and that what and how he depicted the Native American people be as authentic as possible. He believed this to be the best way to fully understand and appreciate what he observed in Native American culture, making him as much of an amateur anthropologist as he was a painter. As he did for Leaf Down – Taos Indian Girl, he made a point to get to know his sitters personally to not only authentically portray their dress and surrounding, but to also portray the true nature of his sitter's emotions and personality. Leaf Down is thought to be the daughter of his favorite female model Crucita. The dress (which Crucita also modeled in various paintings) and the multi-colored floral shawl are also among Sharp's popular artifacts. Sharp posed Crucita and Leaf Down together as well as solo. In Leaf Down – Taos Indian Girl, as Sharp describes with an inscription on an original cardboard backing affixed to the verso, he beautifully depicts his model wearing a patterned, oblong square blanket draped over one arm and under the other pinned down with silver pins along the side. Sharp notes that the dress was made from cotton raised by the Indians before the Spaniards came and that the wool embroidery was done later. She is also depicted wearing thick leggings customary of Hopi bridal wear and to her right resting on the ledge she sits on is a large patterned and fringed shawl that is traditionally worn across the shoulders. To her right is an arrangement of flowers and resting under her right arm is a large and traditionally patterned Pueblo basket. The lighting of the interior is by firelight produced outside the picture plane. He notes in the same inscription on the verso that the present work is one of his very best firelight pictures. Sharp's interiors were carefully staged in his studio and the contemplative calm depicted in the scene can be felt by his viewers. In Leaf Down – Taos Indian Girl Sharp's role as recorder of Native American life is on full display. The painting resides as arguably one of the best examples in his body of work.