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
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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
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.
