Do-Ree-Tah

Do-Ree-Tah at the Smithsonian American Art Museum continues the series of named Crow portraits that Sharp assembled across his years in Montana. The specific title reflects his systematic approach: each painting was named for its subject, creating an archive of individual identities within the Smithsonian's collection. Do-Ree-Tah, like Sharp's other subjects, was a specific person whose image was preserved in paint at a period when the traditional life of the Northern Plains was undergoing rapid transformation under reservation conditions. Sharp was acutely conscious of the documentary dimension of his work.

Sharp's consistent portrait format — warm modelling, direct gaze or characteristic pose, attention to specific clothing and adornment — gives the Smithsonian series a coherent visual identity despite its documentation of many different individuals. The warm Taos-influenced palette unifies works made across different seasons and locations.