In 1913, art critic Ernest Peixotto wrote of Blumenschein’s Taos work that the artist “does not content himself merely with the picturesque side of Indian life, but is preoccupied with harmony of line, mass, and color, building compositions that ‘carry’ and please the eye with fine decorative effect.”

With its indistinct figures rendered in patches of bright color set against a “screen” of cottonwood trees, The Conference (probably not Blumenschein’s title) follows Peixotto’s observations. The cluster of figures with one man mounted on a burro in profile is a formal device that Blumenschein had explored in his Evening at Pueblo of Taos in 1913.

Blumenschein believed that “a picture must work: it should be well composed and slowly constructed until it has grown to completion.” He likely painted The Conference as a version leading to a larger, more “completed” canvas.