Born in Bridgeport, Ohio, Joseph Sharp was regarded as the "father of the Taos Art Colony" and was known for his Indian figures, genre paintings, and exquisitely colorful landscapes.

He was one of the first Caucasian artists to visit New Mexico, arriving in Santa Fe in 1883.  He was also a visitor to Alaska, being one of the early artists who visited there after the purchase of the Territory.  Although Sharp was completely deaf from a childhood accident, he reportedly had a cheerful nature and was an avid traveler, always seeking learning experiences about other cultures.

From childhood, he was interested in Indigenous culture, and at age fourteen, because of his deafness, left public school to study art in Cincinnati at the McMicken School and the Cincinnati Academy of Art.  His studio was in the same building as Henry Farny, who gave him books on Pueblo Indians.

At age 22, Sharp went to Antwerp, Belgium, where he studied with Charles Verlat, and two years later, he began traveling the American West, going first on a sketching trip that included Santa Fe, places in California, and north to the Columbia River.  He did numerous paintings of Indian figures to record their disappearing culture.

In 1886, he returned to Europe for more study and enrolled at the Academy in Munich with Karl Von Marr.  He also traveled with Frank Duveneck, a famous Cincinnati artist, through Spain and Italy.  From 1892 to 1902, he taught classes at the Cincinnati Art Academy, and from 1895 to 1896, he attended the Academie Julian in Paris, where he met Ernest Blumenschein and Bert Geer Phillips, who later joined him in Taos.

By 1912, Sharp was a permanent resident of Taos, living across from Kit Carson's homesite and painting many of the Pueblo Indians in their daily activities.