In 1916 at the Traxel Art Galleries in Cincinnati Sharp presented a painting he titled A Corner of the Studio. That title seems to fit this work, but several things mitigate against that assumption. The figure in the mirror looks like Sharp in the mid-1920s (when Sharp was painting many similar works), and the small print the hangs to the left of the mirror appears in all three other known versions of such scenes finished between 1924 and 1926.
A dozen years later Sharp displayed this oil at the Kreimer & Brother galleries in Cincinnati. It was referred to as a truly "novel" work. "By means of the mirrored portrait," a reviewer wrote, "the artist has signed his canvas twice." (Cincinnati Enquirer, 11/21/1936)
Sharp’s sales ledger for 1945 indicates that a painting titled Studio Interior. Frank & Cruce, measuring 20 x 24 inches, sold to Mrs. W. A. Thompson of Santa Fe for $300. (Sharp Papers) That is probably this painting.
Studio Interior; Frank & Cruce; [Indians in Taos Studio]
Alternate Title:
A Corner of My Studio in Taos, "Crucita & Francisco"; Studio Interior: Frank & Cruce (Crucita)
Record ID: 237
Date: ca. 1925
Medium: oil on canvas
Dimensions: 20 x 27 13/16 in.
Signature / Inscription: LR: J.H. SHARP.
Owner: Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ
Accession Number: 1985.136
Provenance:
The artist; Mrs. W. A. Thompson, Santa Fe, NM, 1945 (however, Riebeth, J. H. Sharp, 1985, 18, states that this painting was still in Sharp’s possession in 1946 when she visited him in Taos); [?]; Carl S. Dentzel Family, Northridge, CA; present owner by gift, 1985.
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