{{Short description|British artist (1874–1955)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}} {{Infobox artist | name = Dorothea Sharp | image = Photo of Dorothea Sharp.jpg | image_size = | alt = | caption = Dorothea Sharp 1940 | birth_name = | birth_date = 10 January 1873 | birth_place = Dartford, England | death_date = {{Death date and age|1955|12|17|1874|df=y}} | death_place = London, England | spouse = | known_for = painting | training = Regent Street Polytechnic | movement = Impressionism | notable_works = | patrons = | awards = RBA Bronze Medal, 1931<ref name=TimesObit /><ref>{{cite news|title=R.B.A. Award Of Medals|url=http://find.galegroup.com/ttda/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=TTDA&userGroupName=oxford&tabID=T003&docPage=article&searchType=BasicSearchForm&docId=CS152773784&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0|access-date=21 August 2013|newspaper=The Times|date=24 April 1931|page=9}}</ref> | elected = Society of Women Artists<br />(1908)<br />Royal Society of British Artists (1907)<ref name=WWW /><br /> Royal Institute of Oil Painters (1922)<ref name=WWW /> | website = }}

'''Dorothea Sharp''' {{post-nominals|post-noms=ROI RBA}} (10 January 1873 &ndash; 17 December 1955)<ref name=WWW>{{cite web|title=SHARP, Dorothea|url=http://www.ukwhoswho.com/view/article/oupww/whowaswho/U242848|work=Who Was Who|publisher=A & C Black, an imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing plc, 1920–2008; online edn, Oxford University Press, Dec 2007|access-date=20 August 2013}}</ref> was a British artist best known for her landscapes and naturalistic studies of children at play.<ref name=TimesObit />

== Life and career ==

Sharp was born in Dartford, Kent, the eldest of five children of James Sharp and Emily Jane (née Sturge), and christened Lydia Mary, although she preferred to be known as Dorothea. She began her training aged 21, when, after inheriting £100 from an uncle, she attended the Richmond art school run by C. E. Johnson RI.<ref name=HTFA>{{cite web|last=Taylor|first=Hilary|title=Dorothea Sharp, 1874–1955|url=http://www.howgill-tattershall.co.uk/subject/still-life/lilies-in-the-window/introduction-to-artist-dorothea-sharp|publisher=Howgill Tattershall Fine Art|access-date=21 August 2013|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://archive.today/20130914172122/http://www.howgill-tattershall.co.uk/subject/still-life/lilies-in-the-window/introduction-to-artist-dorothea-sharp|archive-date=14 September 2013}}</ref> She went on to study at the Regent Street Polytechnic, where her work was admired by George Clausen and David Murray.<ref name=HTFA /><ref name=CAI>{{cite web|title=Dorothea SHARP|url=http://cornwallartists.org/cornwall-artists/dorothea-sharp|publisher=Cornwall Artists' Index|access-date=21 August 2013}}</ref> She later went to Paris,<ref name=TimesObit /> where she encountered the work of the Impressionists – in particular Claude Monet – that was to have a profound and lasting effect on her art, resulting in the highly impressionistic and spontaneous style that she was to adopt for the rest of her life.<ref name=HTFA />

In 1903 she became an Associate of the Society of Women Artists, and in 1908 a full member,<ref name=HTFA /> going on to serve as vice-president for 4 years.<ref name=TimesObit /> She was elected a member of the Royal Society of British Artists in 1907 and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in 1922.<ref name=WWW /><ref name=TimesObit /> Sharp exhibited at The Royal Academy from 1901 to 1948<ref name=TimesObit /><ref name=HTFA /> and held her first one-woman show at the Connell Gallery in 1933; this was a great success<ref name=HTFA /> and she was described as 'one of England's greatest living woman painters' by Harold Sawkins, editor of ''The Artist''.<ref>Harold Sawkins, "Dorothea Sharp, ROI, RBA," ''The Artist'', April 1935.</ref>

Sharp became a good friend to the Canadian Impressionist artist Helen McNicoll, and the two travelled together in France and Italy until the outbreak of the First World War. McNicoll died in 1915.<ref>Samantha Burton, Helen McNicoll: Life and Work, The Canadian Art Library, 2020.</ref> Later, Sharp travelled with fellow artist Marcella Smith, who became a lifelong friend. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s Sharp travelled to Europe (e.g. Cassis) to paint, and also to Bosham and St Ives, Cornwall. Sharp was made an honorary member of the St. Ives Society of Artists (STISA) in 1928.<ref name=CAI />

Sharp died on 17 December 1955, aged 81.<ref name=TimesObit>{{cite news|title=Miss Dorothea Sharp|url=http://find.galegroup.com/ttda/infomark.do?&source=gale&prodId=TTDA&userGroupName=oxford&tabID=T003&docPage=article&searchType=BasicSearchForm&docId=CS152262036&type=multipage&contentSet=LTO&version=1.0|access-date=20 August 2013|newspaper=The Times|date=20 December 1955|page=9}}</ref>

== References ==

{{Reflist}}

==Further reading== * {{cite book | isbn = 978-1850723783 | title = Rock Pools and Sunshine: The Biography of Dorothea Sharp | last1 = Entwisle | first1 = Helen | year = 2008 | publisher = William Sessions Limited}}

== External links == * {{Art UK bio}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Sharp, Dorothea}} Category:1874 births Category:1955 deaths Category:19th-century English painters Category:20th-century English painters Category:19th-century English women artists Category:Alumni of the Regent Street Polytechnic Category:People from Bosham Category:People from Dartford Category:People from St Ives, Cornwall Category:19th-century British women painters Category:20th-century English women painters