SHARPLESS, James, artist, born in England about 1751: died in New York city, 26 February, 1811. He was intended for the priesthood, but studied art. He came to this country in 1794, but, after remaining here several years, revisited England, returning to this country in 1809. He is buried in the churchyard of St. Peter's in Barclay street, New York. The only known work of Sharpless that is unquestionably authentic is a collection of small portraits in pastel. These are usually in profile, although some give the full face. Sharpless used a thick gray paper, softly grained, and of woolly texture. His colored crayons, which he manufactured himself, were kept finely powdered in small glass cups, and he applied them with a camel's-hair pencil. He is said to have worked with great rapidity, wholly completing in two hours a portrait for which he charged $15 for a profile, and $20 for a full face. He usually made a replica of each portrait, which he retained for his own use. This personal collection came into the possession of a gentleman in Virginia, it is said, as a pledge for a loan of $150, which was never repaid, and the portraits remained his. Each one originally had the name of the subject attached to it, but during the civil war a descendant of the owner removed them from his home, and many of the names were lost, out of 130 only 70 were named. Subsequently an effort was made to identify them, but with only partial success. At the Centennial exhibition in 1876, forty of them were purchased for the National museum in Independence hall, Philadelphia, where they now are. Among them are portraits of George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Monroe, Anthony Wayne, Horatio Gates, James Wilkinson, Elias Dayton, James Clinton, De Witt Clinton, Charles Brockton Brown, Chancellor Kent, Judge William Johnson, Chancellor Livingston, Noah Webster, Fisher Ames, Aaron Burr, Alexander Hamilton, Benjamin Rush, Henry Cruger, John Langdon, James McHenry, and the wives of James Madison and Richard Stockton. Sharpless took Washington's portrait in profile in 1796 in Philadelphia. The likeness has always been estimated as a very correct one. He made many copies in pastel, and his wife copied it on ivory in miniature. In 1854 there were brought from England what purported to be three original oil-portraits by Sharp-less, two of Washington, one profile and the other full face, and one of Mrs. Washington. They were exhibited in New York, and created much interest. In 1882-'3 they were again brought to this country and exhibited more widely, and again in 1886-'7, when they were offered for sale at an extravagant price, but an investigation threw doubt on their authenticity and caused their withdrawal. Sharpless had a turn for mechanics as well as art, and in the first volume of the "Medical and Philosophical Register" (1811) is published a paper by him on steam-carriages. His widow returned to England and had a sale of his effects at Bath, but his two sons are believed to have remained in this country and settled in the south. It was probably from one of them that the Virginia gentleman obtained the collection of pastel portraits.