“The Whipping,” created by Horace Pippin in 1941, is an oil painting on panel belonging to the Naïve Art (Primitivism) movement. This genre painting is housed at the Reynolda House Museum of American Art in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, USA.
The artwork depicts a brutal scene of physical punishment, presumably in a historical context, characterized by its simplistic yet poignant style, inherent to Naïve Art. In the foreground, a man with a raised arm appears to be in the act of whipping another person who is bound to a post. The victim is rendered with minimal detail, emphasizing their vulnerability. A third figure, possibly an onlooker or another participant in the act, stands in the background, partially obscured by the log structures that dominate the setting. The color palette is muted and earthy, with reds and browns depicting the harsh environment, while the brushstrokes are coarse, contributing to the raw and unrefined emotional impact of the scene. The sky, painted in shades of blue, contrasts with the dark, oppressive atmosphere below, encapsulating the tensions present in the narrative of the artwork.