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Joseph H. Henry Sharp Catalogue

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Chief Rocky Bear

Penciled on dust cover on verso: Chief Rocky Bear 1898-1900 Sioux. Inscribed on notepaper glued to dustcover: Chief Rocky Bear – Sioux Pine Ridge, Dakota – 1898-1900 Contemporary with Crazy Horse, Rain In The Face & other great chiefs of Custer fame. His facial character explains his strength – Red feather denotes enemies killed in honorary battle. They did not know what murder meant.

 

This was one of five versions of Rocky Bear that Sharp exhibited in 1900 at the Cincinnati Museum and again at the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC in 1901. Two of the other portraits can be seen in #s 157 and 334.

Chief Rocky Bear

Alternate Title:

Rocky Bear, Sioux

Record ID: 470

Date: ca. 1900; [1898-1900]

Medium: oil on canvas

Dimensions: 20 5/8 x 14 1/2 in.

Signature / Inscription: UR: CHIEF ROCKY BEAR. / SIOUX. LL: J.H.SHARP. / PINE RIDGE

Owner: Gilcrease Museum, Tulsa, OK

Accession Number: 0137.488

Provenance:

The artist; [?]; Dr. Philip G. Cole, Tarrytown, NY; Thomas Gilcrease, Tulsa, OK, 1947; The Thomas Gilcrease Foundation, Tulsa, OK; present owner by gift 1955

Created concurrently with Peter Hassrick’s 2018 Whitney West publication The Life & Art of Joseph Henry Sharp, this online catalogue highlights more than 700 works by J.H. Sharp that are held in public collections.