The Gossip
William Penhallow Henderson
ca. 1922
Medium
Painting
Classification
Painting
Department
Smithsonian Collection
Museum
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Credit
Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Arvin Gottlieb
Accession Number
1991.205.10
Tags
housefemaleTaosconversation
About this artwork
In The Gossip, William Penhallow Henderson focused on the distinctive shapes of the southwestern landscape. The outlines of the womenâs 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 t...