When Sharp returned to Cincinnati from his summer trip to Taos in 1893, we wrote a letter to a local paper, the Times Star (9/2/93), about having witnessed, or probably just heard about, some provocative Penitente ceremonies. The paper titled his expose "American Crucifixion" and he may have brought back with him studies like this for a large painting on which he was proposing to embark. However, no known painting of this subject exists or is listed in available records and the signature type would indicate that the sketch itself was painted after 1904.