After studying art in his native Ohio and in Europe, Sharp traveled regularly to the American West, eventually settling there and keeping studios in New Mexico and Montana. He became known for his depictions of American Indian life, and over his career completed more than two hundred portraits of Native Americans. Around 1900 Sharp first visited the Oglala Lakota (Teton Sioux) in South Dakota. Wolf Ear, a favorite model, appeared in some eighteen paintings. Sharp used this profile portrait as the basis for an etching as well as a cover illustration for Sunset magazine in June, 1903.

The original oil portrait (location unknown), reversed from this monotype print, was illustrated in the New York Herald, December 23, 1906.  The etchiong without color in fairly common. (see related image, #615a)