Dorothea Sharp was a distingished landscape and figure painter who worked in oils, and is known for her joyous paintings and luminous, bright palette. She studied art at the Regent Street Polytechnic and continued her training in Paris several years later. Alongside contemporaries Elizabeth Forbes and Christabel Cockerell, she was at the forefront of the British Impressionist School, and was greatly influenced by the leaders of the Impressionist movement whilst living in Paris. She is particularly well-known for her informal subjects of children, often at play in the garden or on the beach, which are executed with a sense of spontanaeity and a focus on colour and light. The work of Matisse and van Gogh proved similarly inspirational, and Sharp's preference for bright outlines owes much to their work. Living later in St. Ives, Cornwall, the location of an extablished art colony, also provided much inspiration in its unique light, architecture, streets, community and seaside life.

Dorothea Sharp's work was exhibited at the Royal Academy for many years, and also abroad. She was elected to the Royal Society of British Artists in 1907, a member of the Society of Women Artists and the Royal Institute of Oil Painters in 1922.