The Gossip

William Penhallow Henderson, The Gossip, ca. 1922, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Arvin Gottlieb, 1991.205.10
Copied William Penhallow Henderson, The Gossip, ca. 1922, oil on canvas, 16 1⁄4 x 20 1⁄4 in. (41.3 x 51.4 cm.), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Arvin Gottlieb, 1991.205.10
Free to use

Artwork Details

Title
The Gossip
Artist
Date
ca. 1922
Location
Dimensions
16 1⁄4 x 20 1⁄4 in. (41.3 x 51.4 cm.)
Credit Line
Gift of Arvin Gottlieb
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Figure group — female
  • Landscape — New Mexico — Taos
  • Recreation — leisure — conversation
  • Architecture Exterior — domestic — house
Object Number
1991.205.10
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1991.205.10

Artwork Description

In The Gossip, William Penhallow Henderson focused on the distinctive shapes of the southwestern landscape. The outlines of the women’s forms echo the swelling hills and rounded Pueblo architecture. Henderson was a noted modernist painter who drew inspiration for his intensely colored canvases from the postimpressionist and cubist styles that he first saw in Paris. The dark values and edgy colors in The Gossip help to evoke the isolation and claustrophobia of communities scattered throughout the Sangre de Cristo Mountains in northern New Mexico.