"Evening Council"
Understanding
By the 1870s, relations between Native Americans and white immigrants began to deteriorate rapidly. Massacres like Sand Creek, Wounded Knee, and the Trail of Tears exemplified the prevailing attitude held by the white population that the indigenous peoples were subhuman, and their existence interfered with the Manifest Destiny of the United States. However, there were a few individuals who recognized the beauty of these civilizations and strove to understand them: one of these people was a painter named Joseph Henry Sharp. His respectful, documentary-style paintings of Native Americans directly challenged the common perception of the Native American as savage and sub-human. “Evening Council,” an undated painting of an anonymous group of Indians, is no exception to this style. However, to someone unfamiliar with Sharp’s attitude toward the indigenous peoples of America, the painting could be interpreted as an ignorantly curious snapshot into the lives of the “savages.”
As an aspiring artist, Sharp travelled to Europe where he spent two years studying realist techniques. He returned to America, and in 1883, he travelled out west for the first time, and discovered his passion for the native peoples of America. However, he still felt that his training was incomplete, so he returned to Europe a few years later and spent two additional years studying art in Paris. Afterwards, he spent most of the remainder of his life living with and painting the plains Indians and Taos tribes in New Mexico. Throughout his career, he strove to “respect…Indian customs…and reflect…reverence for Indian manners and ways.” (Shaefer and Steele 15) Unlike many other artists who had tried to capture the Native American, Sharp took the time to get to know his subjects, and to understand their traditions and ways of life. (Fenn 111) In stark contrast with the prevailing attitude towards Native Americans during Sharp’s lifetime, Sharp sided with the Indians. He “wondered what right the government of anyone else had to interfere with Indian traditions.” (Fenn 161) Unfortunately, in a society that was largely ignorant of those “manners” and “ways,” his paintings, such as “Evening Council,” could have been misinterpreted.
Stylistically, the painting is most identifiably connected with the realist tradition in which Sharp was trained. The image is largely representational: the figures and objects are proportional, the colors are life-like, and the setting is easily recognizable. The image does not attempt to capture life exactly how it appears, like a photograph, but it is far from abstract. The brushstrokes are soft, but visible: this contributes to the reverent feeling of the image, especially in the graceful flow of the pine needles and the thoughtful curls and arcs of the smoke from the fire. The subjects’ faces are indistinct – again, revealing Sharp’s respectful sensitivity towards the customs of the people he painted.
To emotionally sensitive viewers, Sharp’s exceptional respect for Native American culture is beautifully evident in “Evening Council.” It is a simple scene, depicting eight Native Americans gathered around a fire under the light of a bright moon. Sharp’s respect is clearly manifest by the polite distance he keeps from their council – as a viewer, it is obvious that while you may be curious to know exactly what is happening, it is not your place to know. The people depicted are very real – not caricatured. They are comfortable with each other and with their surroundings, and they are participating in intelligent, meaningful conversation. This portrayal is precisely the opposite of the general cultural perception of the natives as savage, subhuman creatures in need of civilizing.
Unfortunately, to those people who viewed the Indians as savages, this painting could have been misinterpreted, and the message of respect and acceptance completely lost. Those very attributes that serve to emphasize Sharp’s respect – such as the distance from the subjects, the graceful brushwork, the indistinct faces, and the unclear purpose of the council – could be construed as expressions of the general misunderstanding of the cultures. The distance from the subjects could just as easily be out of fear as respect. The graceful, shadowy brushwork creates an unfamiliar, almost magical aura around the Indians – and what is unfamiliar is scary and must be changed so that it is understood. This scary unfamiliarity is further emphasized with the lack of distinction in the faces of the subjects. By obscuring their facial features, Sharp eliminated a primary avenue of human communication and made it very difficult for viewers unfamiliar with the culture to guess at the emotions of the subjects, or to even know if they had emotions to be guessed at. Essentially, by avoiding clarity in his subjects’ faces, Sharp failed to break down a barrier between the natives and the ignorant newcomers. Similarly, by offering no clues in the painting or its title as to the subject or nature of the “council,” Sharp shrouds these already misunderstood people in even deeper secrecy.
Both of these interpretations played a part in my understanding of the painting. I passed through three recognizable fazes: my initial response in the museum, my response to the information I learned about it and my analysis of it, and then my synthesized, thought-out reaction. In the context of the museum, I saw the painting as a visually attractive representation of the romanticized American wilderness. Many of the other paintings in the exhibit featured glorified landscapes and picturesque oneness with the environment. Because of this environment of idealization, I became lazy in my observation of the paintings: in other words, I reacted similarly to how many people in Sharp’s day would have. I saw a strange culture doing something I didn’t understand, so I fell back onto my preconceived notions of the Native American cultures and entirely missed the message of acceptance and respect. As I learned more about Sharp’s life and his goals in painting these people, I quickly distanced myself from everyone who would have misinterpreted his intentions, and imagined myself and the painting as honest, real, and absolutely willing to go against common cultural perceptions. Unfortunately, this understanding is just as incorrect as my initial reaction; it is only with a synthesis of these two opposing views that I can truly represent my understanding of this work of art. I cannot fully separate myself from my initial, aesthetic reaction to the work: it is beautiful, and it is strange to me. However, I realize that there is more for me to understand, and I try to understand that.
While Sharp may not have portrayed the Native Americans in “Evening Council” in such a way that all the misconceptions of his time period were addressed and corrected, he succeeded in teaching me - and perhaps others - something more about their culture. While I don’t understand everything, I understand the beauty, and his passion inspired me to understand more.
Joseph Henry Sharp
Note: To learn more about Sharp and his work, I recommend "The Beat of the Drum and the Whoop of the Dance:A Study of the Life and Work of Joseph Henry Sharp" by Forest Fenn.
