William Penhallow Henderson (1877-1943)
William Penhallow Henderson lived, briefly, in Santa Fe as a young boy before his family’s return to their native Massachusetts. He studied at the Boston Museum School under Edmund C. Tarbell. Winning the prestigious Paige Scholarship allowed him to travel to Europe and study everything from the Old Masters to the then-modern Impressionists. Upon his return to the States, he took a teaching position at the Academy of Fine Arts in Chicago. In 1916, he and his poet-wife moved to Santa Fe where he painted murals and designed furniture; and there he helped found the New Mexico Painters Society. He also owned a building company that allowed him to express his creativity through architectural design, such as Sena Plaze and the Wheelwright Museum. It was in Europe that he first developed his colorful style, and it was in Santa Fe that he mastered it.
Information courtesy of Cowan’s Auctions Inc.