|
|
 |
 |
"The Evening Chant"
Oil painting by Joseph Henry Sharp (1859-1953), 1900
Collected by Phoebe A. Hearst, 1905
17-671
Phoebe Hearst was critical to the career of Joseph Henry Sharp, one of the foremost painters of the American Indian. Learning of his work at the Buffalo world's fair of 1901, Hearst bought—sight unseen—the entire contents of Sharp's studio, plus the paintings in the show. She donated these eighty canvases to the University museum and contracted with Sharp for additional paintings. In the end, she bought seventeen more of his pictures for the University, mostly of Crow and other Plains Indians. Sharp always regarded Mrs. Hearst with affection, as her largesse had allowed him to give up teaching and devote himself exclusively to painting, and she continued to acquire his works when he was in financial difficulties. "The Evening Chant" was the most ambitious of the Sharp paintings donated by Phoebe Hearst. Here the artist paints a romantic and nostalgic scene, with the twilight evoking the passing of the old ways at Taos Pueblo, New Mexico. The work was evidently a favorite of Mrs. Hearst, and it hung over her office desk in the Examiner Building in San Francisco.
|
|
