Two Important 1893 Sharp/Hauser Western Photograph Albums

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Source Cowan's Auctions

Two leather bound albums, titled Sioux and Apache and Pueblos of New Mexico. Each album page has four tipped-in albumen images to a side, for a total of 564 images. In addition, there are four pages on the letterhead paper of a Cincinnati doctor, Lewis A. Querner, containing a partial inventory of the photographs, labeled and numbered. These albums contain photographs that match Joseph Henry Sharp's Harvest Dance (in the Cincinnati Art Museum's collection) and many of John Hauser's extant works, including the following two lots in this auction. THE JOHN HAUSER MYSTERY Discovered in Indiana, the pair of albums are the first substantial group of visual material that help shed light on the life of Cincinnati artist John Hauser (1859-1913), a prolific artist of the American West. His close friends included Henry Farny (1847-1916) and traveling companion Joseph Henry Sharp (1859-1953). Until recently, Hauser has been an obscure figure in the Western Art genre, often in the shadow of Sharp and Farny -- powerhouses within the field about whom numerous exhibits and publications have been devoted. It is known, however, that Hauser, or "Straight White Shield," his Sioux name, traveled extensively in the Northwest and Southwest and accompanied Sharp on an 1893 trip to Taos. This was Sharp's first trip to Taos; these photographs appear to document this significant excursion. Other than Hauser's prolific body of original watercolors and paintings, little primary material exists to document his life and work, as E.P Harris and Jerry Glenn of the John Hauser Project, have made painfully clear. A handful of articles in the Cincinnati Gazette and other local newspapers, a few handwritten letters in the collection of the Cincinnati Art Museum, some family photographs, and the occasional inscription on the reverse of a painting are the only evidence of the artist's life. His studio and home in Cincinnati, still standing, was aptly named "Pine Ridge" for the Oglala Sioux reservation in South Dakota that Hauser and his wife frequently visited. FROM THE LENS TO THE CANVAS There is no question that many Western artists used photography as an alternative to live models. For example, Henry Farny took only four brief trips to the American West and executed most of his paintings back in Cincinnati by using photographs, sketches, and Indian artifacts he collected along the way. Joseph Henry Sharp, though preferring models, also made use of the camera. Knowing that Hauser could use a camera, it was always assumed that he also executed paintings from photographs, but few have surfaced until now. Through comparisons, we know that Hauser was using these very albums as a basis for numerous paintings. Two such examples (the following lots in this sale, 305 and 306) are illustrated here alongside the albumen images: each subject in the following paintings was photographed extensively by Hauser. Sometimes, in his enthusiasm, he took numerous images of the same Indian. A large number of other photographs in the albums compare similarly to known works by Hauser, and it can be assumed with relative certainty that these albums were in the artist's possession. SHARP AND HAUSER - TAOS, 1893 From the little documentation we have regarding Sharp and Hauser's journey to the Southwest in 1893, the evidence is compelling that the albums presented here document a part, or all, of this trip, at least from John Hauser's perspective. Sometime in late Spring Sharp and his wife, Addie, boarded a train in Cincinnati, departed for the Southwest, and eventually rendezvoused with Hauser in Santa Fe. Addie stayed there while the artists traveled by buckboard through several northern Pueblos: Taos, Tesuque, and San Juan. They arrived at San Juan in time for the annual celebration of the feast of San Geronimo. The albums contain numerous photos of this important Pueblo event. The artists were infatuated with the Southwestern environment and the Indians--making sketches and collecting material and ideas for future paintings (Fenn, 1983: 68-79). The accompanying i... read more

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