An Illuminaiting 3-Page Autograph Signed Letter.

Pasadena, CA: N.p., 1922. This ALS is written by hand in ink on three sheets of paper (rectos only). It is written from Sharp at his Pasadena residence to Cornelius O'Brien of Lawrenceburg, Indiana, and dated January 6th of 1922. Two small diagrams drawn in the text. Very legible and in excellent condition.The letter is written by Sharp to a customer of his, a Mr. Cornelius O'Brien, a banker and prominent citizen of Lawrenceburg, Indiana. Mr. O'Brien bought a Sharp painting ("The Chief's Son") and had inquired of Sharp of the proper frame in an earlier letter. Apparently Sharp and O'Brien both bought the same frame and were pleased with them. But the letter then evolves into a mini-history lesson on both Sharp and Native Americans. At the beginning he writes "I generally go to my cabin & studio at foot of Custer Battle Field in the Crow Country, Montana.. but Mrs. Sharp's health is not robust so we came here [1481 Carson St., Pasadena). In April we go to our home- Taos, NM. Most of my pictures are painted on the reservations of Montana and New Mexico now, but in former years painted throughout the west." He then goes on to describe the naming ritual in the Crow Nation and states that "The Chief's Son" real name was "Hunting Son" and that "his father, Chief Soaring Eagle, one of the first Indians I ever painted and a life-long friend, was a great hunter" and that the boy took after him in this regard. For some reason Sharp next launches into a description of a teepee - "The interior of the lodge or teepee is generally lined with blankets or skins, four to six feet high, tied to the upright teepee poles. This acts as the same as the studding in our frame buildings and keeps the teepee warm... The willow back rest is made of a lot of colored willow sticks warped together with thongs and hung from a strong tripod [small drawing here] at the head of the robes or bed. Hanging from this is often his shield, war bonnet, bow & arrows, medicine bag and other trinkets or bits of adornment. [Small drawing of the interior of a teepee]. A visitor entering the door goes to the man's side, or to shake hands never goes between him & the fire, but always goes around the other way- unless the chief waves the courtesy aside, or if it is a white man who doesn't know." He concludes the letter talking about his upcoming exhibition and his hope to meet up with the O'Briens again.A childhood hearing loss curtailed Joseph Henry Sharp's conventional schooling in his native Bridgeport, Ohio, but his artistic skill enabled him to enroll at the McMicken School of Design in Cincinnati at the age of fourteen. In 1881 he went off to Europe, the first of three study trips abroad, each of which was followed by visits to New Mexico and the Columbia River basin. He spent part of the summer of 1893 in Taos and passed on word of its artistic resources to Ernest Blumenschein and Bert Phillips, whom he had met in Paris in 1895. For two decades, he divided his time between teaching at the Cincinnati Art Academy, sketching in the Northwest, and summering at Taos, where he finally established a permanent residence in 1912. Sharp was a charter member of the Taos Society of Artists, with which he exhibited for many years. His favorite subject was the Indian and his fast-disappearing lifestyle. Sharp drew and painted with a facility and accuracy that gave his work ethnographic as well as artistic value. His wife Addy [Byram] died in 1912 and he soon after Joseph Henry married her sister, Louise. a