In the late 1930s, Sharp wrote a note to Frank Phillips about this portrait: "Dance chief for all ceremonial dances and rituals. I have seen him with a big rawhide whip after the young bucks who were shirking in the dance. He is not sleepy but I never saw his eyes open much. A very man, serious and with plenty of dignity at the right time. He had a great sense of humor and I have seen him chuckle and shake at a good joke. I must have painted him a half dozen times and he always came in with a different shirt, dress or accessories every time. He seemed to sense that I was after the artistic, ethnological side as well as human character. At last news he was still living and must now be well in his 90’s." (Woolaroc archives)
See entry #21 for another version of this Blackfeet man and three more of his portraits.
Chief Big Brave – Blackfoot
Record ID: 554
Date: ca. 1905
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 10 x 14 in.
Signature / Inscription: LL: J.H.SHARP.
Owner: Woolaroc Museum & Wildlife Preserve, Bartlesville, OK
Accession Number: GRA-81
Provenance:
The artist; Frank Phillips, Bartlesville, OK, 1939; present owner, 1939
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