Julia Graydon Sharpe

Julia Graydon Sharpe, ca. 1880

Courtesy of Indiana Historical Society

Julia Graydon Sharpe was born in Indianapolis to a wealthy family and spent her time mixing with and learning from creatives. She attended private schools in Indianapolis before briefly moving to Philadelphia to get specialized instruction in music. Sharpe attended the Indiana School of Art in 1878–1880, where she focused on her drawing skills. Despite her education, Sharpe took a break from artistic work, putting more emphasis on social activities and charity work.

Sharpe came back more seriously to art in 1894 when she became a student of William Forsyth and T. C. Steele at their second Indiana School of Art. Two years later, she spent the winter of 1896-1897 studying in New York at the Art Students League and at William Merritt Chase’s School of Art.

In the first two decades of the 1900s, Sharpe developed a name for herself. She became known for her portrait work and had her watercolor paintings shown across the state and in several exhibitions including the Louisiana Purchase Exposition, St. Louis, 1904; the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, San Francisco, 1915; and the MacDowell Club of New York, 1917. Sharpe also had a studio on the top floor of her parents’ home in Morton Place and became well-known for her studio parties. She worked in Brown County and in Michigan. Despite her growing career, Sharpe stopped painting by 1918, spending the rest of her life volunteering for various cultural and charity organizations.