89

Joseph Henry Sharp (1859-1953), Rabbit Hunters in Roundup
Dimensions: 18 x 24
Framed/base Dimensions: 22 1/4 x 28 1/8 x 2
Signature: signed lower right: JHSHARP
verso: titled and signed

oil on canvas
18 x 24 in.

  • Provenance: Sotheby's New York, March 1994, Lot 69 (label verso)
    Acquired by KSA Industries, Inc. (label verso) from the above
  • Notes:

    Titans of the American West from KSA Industries, Inc: A Bud Adams Company

    Joseph Henry Sharp, Henry to familiars, was the first of the later Taos artists to visit Taos in 1893. While studying at Académie Julian in Paris, in 1895, he and fellow art students Ernest Blumenschein and Bert Phillips discussed the direction of American art and the desire to create a uniquely American art. Sharp regaled them with tales of his recent trip to northern New Mexico and Taos, thus setting Blumy and Bert off on the fateful “Broken Wagon Wheel” trip from Denver, stranding them in Taos. And so the Taos art colony began.

    Rabbit Hunters in Roundup depicts the annual rabbit hunts that continue today at Taos Pueblo, with men on horseback and young men and old on the ground as beaters flush out the rabbits in hiding. The painting demonstrates Sharp’s masterful rendering of composition and Taos light; executed plein air on site in the valley of Valdez, just north of Taos, looking up towards the western edge of Taos Pueblo lands. Forrest Fenn, the author of the Sharp’s biography, Teepee Smoke recounts a colorful story told to him:

    “One afternoon when Sharp was painting on the open plain about two miles west of the pueblo, Soaring Eagle came riding up on his pony and persuaded the artist - paint box and easel in hand - to mount up behind him. The Indian spurred his pony and they took off like a shot. Sharp hung on desperately, clutching his box and easel with one arm and his friend with the other. The Indian chuckled all the way, then as abruptly as he had started, ‘whoaed’ the pony to a stop, causing Sharp to half tumble to the ground. The artist was furious until he looked ahead and saw a hundred or more braves preparing for a rabbit hunt. He realized that Soaring Eagle had wanted him to see the Indians in a natural setting, a scene much more interesting than any he could have imagined.”

    What is significant about the above quote is that it demonstrates the level of trust Joseph Henry Sharp established with his friends at Taos Pueblo, being invited to participate in the annual rabbit hunt, a time-honored tradition.

    To learn more about Sharp’s life and legacy, please visit the Couse-Sharp Historic Site in Taos, New Mexico or online at couse-sharp.org. Through its archives, collections and programming, the Couse-Sharp Historic Site preserves and interprets Taos’ crossroads of cultures, promoting and facilitation research, education, and new perspectives on the Taos Society of Artists, early artists of Taos, and regional and Indigenous communities in relation to the greater story of the multicultural American West.

    Essay courtesy of Couse-Sharp Historic Site, 2025.

  • Condition: The painting appears to be in very good condition. The painting was viewed under blacklight and does not show any indication of inpainting. The frame appears to be in very good condition.

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