A task perhaps even harder than igniting a fire using sticks and stones is to paint a figure illuminated by flames. Joseph Henry Sharp (1859–1953), likely able to do both given his many sojourns camping in the American West, excelled particularly at illuminating American Indians on canvas while they stoked fires. “In the world of American Western collectibles, firelight is really what many people are looking for,” says Alissa Ford, director of Western and California art for Heritage Auctions, which will offer this diminutive oil on November 16 at its New York location. “Firelight in a painting is aesthetically charging, and Sharp’s ability to capture that effect, especially in disappearing cultures, is, well, I have to say it, hot stuff in the marketplace.”
Ford points out that while Sharp is credited…