Penciled on verso: Chief Washakie (underlined) / Shoshone.

In 1908 Sharp offered for sale at Cincinnati's Closson Galleries a portrait of a young Chief Washakie. (location unknown, see Fenn, 2007, 189 for possible versions of Washakie's son Dick) Washakie was born in the early 1800s and would have been quite elderly when Sharp was available to paint him.  Perhaps he worked from a photograph. Even for the portrait discussed here, if painted in 1899 or 1900, the sitter had to be very near the end of his life as he is recorded as dying in February, 1900. In the final analysis though, the signature type does not conform to know samples of the period around 1900, so perhaps this was taken from a photograph.