American Painter, 1859-1953 was a painter credited with influencing the creation of the Taos, New Mexico Society of Artists. Sharp may have been the first artist to discover Taos when he visited in 1883. He painted American Indian portraits and cultural life, and Western landscapes. As a youth he permanently damaged his hearing in a near-drowning accident, and gradually become totally deaf. His formal art training included Mckmicken School of Design (Cincinnati) and Antwerp (Belgium) Academy. He traveled and worked in Europe also. Harpers Magazine commissioned his illustrations of Taos Indian life. Some portraits were purchased by the Smithsonian Institution. President Theodore Roosevelt took an interest in him and had a cabin built for him at Little Big Horn to paint Indian life there.   Related Paintings of Sharp Joseph Henry :. | Burial Cortege of a Crow Chief | Spotted elk | The Broken Bow or father and son | Story of the War robe | Crow Camp at Wyola |
Related Artists:
skagens museum

William Michael Harnett
1851-1892 Harnett was born in Clonakilty, County Cork, Ireland during the time of the potato famine. Shortly after his birth his family emigrated to America, settling in Philadelphia. Becoming a United States citizen in 1868, he made a living as a young man by engraving designs on table silver, while also taking night classes at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts and later, in New York, at Cooper Union and at the National Academy of Design. His first known oil painting, a still life, dates from 1874. The style of trompe l'oeil painting that Harnett developed was distinctive and inspired many imitators, but it was not without precedent. A number of 17th century Dutch painters, Pieter Claesz. for instance, had specialized in tabletop still life of astonishing verisimilitude. Raphaelle Peale, working in Philadelphia in the early 19th century, pioneered the form in America. What sets Harnett's work apart, besides his enormous skill, is his interest in depicting objects not usually made the subject of a painting. Harnett painted musical instruments, hanging game, and tankards, but also painted the unconventional Golden Horseshoe (1886), a single rusted horseshoe shown nailed to a board. He painted a casual jumble of second-hand books set on top of a crate, Job Lot, Cheap (1878), as well as firearms and even paper currency. His works sold well, but they were more likely to be found hanging in a tavern or a business office than in a museum, as they did not conform to contemporary notions of high art. Harnett spent the years 1880?C1886 in Europe, staying in Munich from 1881 until early 1885. Harnett's best-known paintings, the four versions of After The Hunt, were painted between 1883 and 1885. Each is an imposing composition of hunting equipment and dead game, hanging on a door with ornate hinges at the right and keyhole plate at the left. These paintings, like the horseshoe or currency depictions mentioned earlier, are especially effective as trompe l'oeil because the objects occupy a shallow space, meaning that the illusion is not spoiled by parallax shift if the viewer moves. Overall, Harnett's work is most comparable to that of the slightly younger John F. Peto. The two artists knew each other, and a comparison can be made between two paintings featuring violins. Harnett's Music and Good Luck from 1888 shows the violin hanging upright on a door with ornate hinges and with a slightly torn piece of sheet music behind it. The elements are arranged in a stable, deliberate manner. Peto's 1890 painting shows the violin hanging askew, as well as chipped and worn, with one string broken. The sheet music is dog-eared and torn around the edges, and placed haphazardly behind the instrument. The hinges are less ornate, and one is broken. Harnett's objects show signs of use but are well preserved, while Peto's more humble objects are nearly used up. Crippling rheumatism plagued Harnett in his last years, reducing the number but not the quality of his paintings. He died in New York City in 1892. Other artists who painted similar compositions in Harnett's wake include his contemporary John Haberle and successors such as Otis Kaye and Jefferson David Chalfant.
Thomas Mann Baynes
(1794 ?C 1876) was a London born English artist known for his drawings and watercolours of landscapes, buildings and outdoor events. Many of his subjects were engraved and published, generally in London, and these include a notable panorama of the River Thames, which was drawn from nature and engraved on stone. He was the son of James Baynes, a noted watercolour artist. Baynes also produced views of Liverpool and Ireland, and appears to have made a successful living as a printer prior to his death in 1854. His son Fredrick Thomas Baynes (1824-1874) was also a noted watercolour artist.