Joseph Henry Sharp

(American, 1859-1953)

Fiesta Day (Squaw Winter, Crow Reservation - Montana), 1902-1906

oil on canvas

signed J.H. Sharp (lower right)

16 x 20 inches

Property from a Private Collection, Texas

Provenance:

Rainone Galleries, Inc., Arlington, Texas

Private Collection

Exhibited:

Dallas Museum Of Fine Arts, Dallas, Texas, Visions of the West, September - November, 1986

Panhandle Plains Museum, Canyon, Texas, Enchanted: Taos Art From Texas Collections, August - November, 1998

First snow before foliage had all gone. Painted about 1902-1906. The bluffs out of picture to the left was the old Custer battlefield, and all round here the Indians were camped before the battle. These are Crow teepees and painted on the spot 300 ft. from my studio & cabin. There were times when there were several hundred teepees around there. Ration Day, or Feast Day - J.H. Sharp, June, 1931

Fiesta Day is a great example of a Sharp impressionistic Crow encampment in the Montana winter landscape, painted at the height of his career. He was witness to, and chronicler of, the rapidly changing cultural traditions of Plains people, Crow and Blackfeet in particular. Because of the friendships he forged with Native peoples he was able to document people and events that otherwise might not have been recorded.

With the help of S.G. Reynolds, Indian Agent at the Crow reservation, Sharp built a cabin which he named Absarokee Hut, after his Crow (Absarokee) hosts. The location of his studio and cabin are still visible from the Crow Agency town plaza. The cabin, thanks to Forrest Fenn, author of the J.H. Sharp biography, is now on display at Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, WY.

- Davison Packard Koenig, Executive Director, Curator, The Couse-Sharp Historic Site

Fiesta Day (Squaw Winter, Crow Reservation - Montana), 1902-1906

Fiesta Day (Squaw Winter, Crow Reservation - Montana), 1902-1906