Georgia O'KEEFFE (1887-1986)
Except otherwise stated, all results include the premium.
See also : Women artists US painting < 1940 Flowers
Chronology : 1922 1926 1927 1928 1930 1932 1936 1942
See also : Women artists US painting < 1940 Flowers
Chronology : 1922 1926 1927 1928 1930 1932 1936 1942
Intro
In 1908, Georgia O'Keeffe abandoned the idea of becoming an artist. She was 21 years old. Four years later, she understands the reason for her doubts : her highly personal creativity does not meet any academism.
She nevertheless finds a teacher to guide her talent. AW Dow is not a great artist but he is promoting line, mass and color. He is a figurative painter but his student takes his ideas to express her feelings through abstraction. Unrelated with the European artistic movements, with no further inspiration than her aesthetic sensibility, Georgia is one of the first US artists to explore the modern art.
She did not return immediately to color. Her charcoal drawings are animated by large spirals. At the end of 1915, aware of her profound originality that will continue to mark her career for seven decades, Georgia sends some examples of her art by post to a friend named Anita Pollitzer.
Anita knows Alfred Stieglitz. When Georgia visits the Gallery 291 a few months later, she sees her works on display. Stieglitz had not dared to ask for her permission. He tells Georgia that her drawings are the purest, finest and sincerest things that he exhibited in his gallery.
The movement created by Stieglitz in 1902 as the Photo-Secession is much more than a group of friends. Modern photography is born in New York. The foregrounds, angles, contrasts and choice of themes escape the realism. With his camera, the photographer is like the painter : he expresses his feelings.
Stieglitz is also linked with Europeans painters. In 1908 he exhibited at his gallery in New York some works by Picasso, Matisse, Braque and Cézanne. The early abstract drawings by Georgia are sincere and authentic creations in which he sees the seed for an American art.
It is easy to understand to what extent the independent minded Georgia is encouraged by such a statement. Decidedly ahead of her time, she now tries a monochrome use of color. Her choice goes to the Prussian blue.
Blue I, watercolor 79 x 57 cm made in 1916, is included in the first solo exhibition of works by Georgia organized by Stieglitz at the 291 in April and May 1917. This seminal work was sold by Christie's for $ 3M on May 24, 2007 and for $ 2.4M on May 19, 2016, lot 7.
Born in a dairy farm in Wisconsin, Georgia O'Keeffe observes nature. When she became a pioneer of abstract art, she explained that she expresses her sensations or her imagination, without saying too much that the humble wild flowers contribute significantly to her inspiration.
Georgia seeks to reconcile with the most intimate forms of nature. She lives with Stieglitz from 1918. Since his childhood, Alfred spends summers in Lake George. Georgia discovers this beautiful site of the Adirondack mountains in upper New York state.
Georgia's approach to the details of nature is methodical and global. She prepares in parallel several supports, paper or canvas, on which she begins a realistic representation of her subject, in watercolor or oil, from the most varied angles. Seeking the purity of forms, she reworks them up to a level of abstraction that suits her.
In 1919 at Lake George, Georgia takes as a model a canna with a bright red flower and a purple leaf and executes six watercolors and eight oils on this theme. A very geometric composition with the triangular flower surmounted by the diagonal leaf, oil on canvas 42 x 26 cm, was sold for $ 960K by Christie's on December 4, 2003.
Inside Red Canna, oil on canvas 56 x 43 cm, painted in 1919, passed at Christie's on May 22, 2019, lot 12. Georgia went at the closest of her flower up to satisfying one of her deepest artistic obsessions : achieving a perfect symmetry. The bright red petals protecting the brown and pink intimate center of this plant bring a cozy, almost carnal, impression.
This work is one of those that fed from 1923 the debates on an assimilation of the flower to the artist's sexual anatomy. Both are wild, vigorous, sensual, authoritarian, independent.
This interpretation is not credible because the other opus of this series do not have such a characteristic. This fable was probably invented by Stieglitz to draw attention to his wife who was also the model of his photographs, mostly in the nude. Georgia denied, while painting other flowers that illustrated this fantasy of her husband.
Painted in 1925, Pink Tulip, also titled Abstraction and # 77 Tulip, is an example where the extreme enlargement of details of a flower is going into abstraction as a new form of objectivity. Vibrant pink, yellow and green dissolve together at the edges of their attributed sections. This oil on canvas in an unusual vertical size 81 x 30 cm was sold for $ 5.7M by Sotheby's on November 8, 2023, lot 2.
She nevertheless finds a teacher to guide her talent. AW Dow is not a great artist but he is promoting line, mass and color. He is a figurative painter but his student takes his ideas to express her feelings through abstraction. Unrelated with the European artistic movements, with no further inspiration than her aesthetic sensibility, Georgia is one of the first US artists to explore the modern art.
She did not return immediately to color. Her charcoal drawings are animated by large spirals. At the end of 1915, aware of her profound originality that will continue to mark her career for seven decades, Georgia sends some examples of her art by post to a friend named Anita Pollitzer.
Anita knows Alfred Stieglitz. When Georgia visits the Gallery 291 a few months later, she sees her works on display. Stieglitz had not dared to ask for her permission. He tells Georgia that her drawings are the purest, finest and sincerest things that he exhibited in his gallery.
The movement created by Stieglitz in 1902 as the Photo-Secession is much more than a group of friends. Modern photography is born in New York. The foregrounds, angles, contrasts and choice of themes escape the realism. With his camera, the photographer is like the painter : he expresses his feelings.
Stieglitz is also linked with Europeans painters. In 1908 he exhibited at his gallery in New York some works by Picasso, Matisse, Braque and Cézanne. The early abstract drawings by Georgia are sincere and authentic creations in which he sees the seed for an American art.
It is easy to understand to what extent the independent minded Georgia is encouraged by such a statement. Decidedly ahead of her time, she now tries a monochrome use of color. Her choice goes to the Prussian blue.
Blue I, watercolor 79 x 57 cm made in 1916, is included in the first solo exhibition of works by Georgia organized by Stieglitz at the 291 in April and May 1917. This seminal work was sold by Christie's for $ 3M on May 24, 2007 and for $ 2.4M on May 19, 2016, lot 7.
Born in a dairy farm in Wisconsin, Georgia O'Keeffe observes nature. When she became a pioneer of abstract art, she explained that she expresses her sensations or her imagination, without saying too much that the humble wild flowers contribute significantly to her inspiration.
Georgia seeks to reconcile with the most intimate forms of nature. She lives with Stieglitz from 1918. Since his childhood, Alfred spends summers in Lake George. Georgia discovers this beautiful site of the Adirondack mountains in upper New York state.
Georgia's approach to the details of nature is methodical and global. She prepares in parallel several supports, paper or canvas, on which she begins a realistic representation of her subject, in watercolor or oil, from the most varied angles. Seeking the purity of forms, she reworks them up to a level of abstraction that suits her.
In 1919 at Lake George, Georgia takes as a model a canna with a bright red flower and a purple leaf and executes six watercolors and eight oils on this theme. A very geometric composition with the triangular flower surmounted by the diagonal leaf, oil on canvas 42 x 26 cm, was sold for $ 960K by Christie's on December 4, 2003.
Inside Red Canna, oil on canvas 56 x 43 cm, painted in 1919, passed at Christie's on May 22, 2019, lot 12. Georgia went at the closest of her flower up to satisfying one of her deepest artistic obsessions : achieving a perfect symmetry. The bright red petals protecting the brown and pink intimate center of this plant bring a cozy, almost carnal, impression.
This work is one of those that fed from 1923 the debates on an assimilation of the flower to the artist's sexual anatomy. Both are wild, vigorous, sensual, authoritarian, independent.
This interpretation is not credible because the other opus of this series do not have such a characteristic. This fable was probably invented by Stieglitz to draw attention to his wife who was also the model of his photographs, mostly in the nude. Georgia denied, while painting other flowers that illustrated this fantasy of her husband.
Painted in 1925, Pink Tulip, also titled Abstraction and # 77 Tulip, is an example where the extreme enlargement of details of a flower is going into abstraction as a new form of objectivity. Vibrant pink, yellow and green dissolve together at the edges of their attributed sections. This oil on canvas in an unusual vertical size 81 x 30 cm was sold for $ 5.7M by Sotheby's on November 8, 2023, lot 2.
1922 Lake George Reflection
2016 SOLD for $ 13M by Christie's
After meeting with Stieglitz, Georgia O'Keeffe is occupied as a model for the photographer and her creative activity is slowing. Each summer they spend some time together in the Stieglitz family country house at Lake George in upper state New York. Still attentive to abstraction, Georgia observes how nature uses geometry to construct landscapes and flowers.
On May 19, 2016, Christie's sold for $ 13M from a lower estimate of $ 8M Lake George Reflection, oil on canvas 147 x 86 cm probably painted during the summer of 1922, lot 14 estimated $ 8M.
The theme is a classic landscape whose colors are more expressive than realistic. Georgia conceived that a reflection of the mountain in the water can be perfect if the weather is fine. The shore of the lake separates the picture into two halves of identical width.
And hop ! At its first exhibition in January 1923, the artist positions it orthogonally as a vertical work. The observer sees what he wishes to see : a symmetrical abstraction, a New York street lined with skyscrapers, the inside of a flower revealing the pistil, or a sexual symbol. The double meaning is revealed by the title of the work : it is a view of Lake George.
In 1913, Kandinsky had promoted non-figurative art with his story of a watercolor viewed after a fall over. In 1912, the double meaning of the Octopus photograph by Coburn anticipated the surrealism by more than ten years. The image of Lake George by O'Keeffe is a reflection in water and a reflection on the artistic language.
A view of Lake George in the autumn of 1922 attests for the quest of the artist for the geometric perfection of landscapes, here with two rows of trees in strong contrast. This oil on canvas 41 x 69 cm was sold for $ 3.44M by Christie's on November 19, 2024, lot 41A. Mountain and water are in saturated colors.
On May 19, 2016, Christie's sold for $ 13M from a lower estimate of $ 8M Lake George Reflection, oil on canvas 147 x 86 cm probably painted during the summer of 1922, lot 14 estimated $ 8M.
The theme is a classic landscape whose colors are more expressive than realistic. Georgia conceived that a reflection of the mountain in the water can be perfect if the weather is fine. The shore of the lake separates the picture into two halves of identical width.
And hop ! At its first exhibition in January 1923, the artist positions it orthogonally as a vertical work. The observer sees what he wishes to see : a symmetrical abstraction, a New York street lined with skyscrapers, the inside of a flower revealing the pistil, or a sexual symbol. The double meaning is revealed by the title of the work : it is a view of Lake George.
In 1913, Kandinsky had promoted non-figurative art with his story of a watercolor viewed after a fall over. In 1912, the double meaning of the Octopus photograph by Coburn anticipated the surrealism by more than ten years. The image of Lake George by O'Keeffe is a reflection in water and a reflection on the artistic language.
A view of Lake George in the autumn of 1922 attests for the quest of the artist for the geometric perfection of landscapes, here with two rows of trees in strong contrast. This oil on canvas 41 x 69 cm was sold for $ 3.44M by Christie's on November 19, 2024, lot 41A. Mountain and water are in saturated colors.
masterpiece
1926 Black Iris III
Metropolitan Museum
In 1923 Georgia O'Keeffe famously shocked her avant-gardist surrounding with the audacity of her oversized paintings of views inside flowers.
Black Iris III, oil on canvas 91 x 76 cm painted in 1926, is an early example. The curves and depths of the petals and their gradual shift of color from flesh to black are nearly zoomorphic and invite for an interpretation as a female human sex.
The artist nevertheless denied such titillating connotations,. She was considering with no nonsense that her feat had been to make her hand on the flower when it was just blooming as it was so available only two weeks per spring. She provided an unprecedented representation of the natural beauty.
O'Keeffe's husband Alfred Stieglitz considered that specific example as "the greatest picture in the world". This masterpiece is currently owned by the Met Museum.
Black Iris III, oil on canvas 91 x 76 cm painted in 1926, is an early example. The curves and depths of the petals and their gradual shift of color from flesh to black are nearly zoomorphic and invite for an interpretation as a female human sex.
The artist nevertheless denied such titillating connotations,. She was considering with no nonsense that her feat had been to make her hand on the flower when it was just blooming as it was so available only two weeks per spring. She provided an unprecedented representation of the natural beauty.
O'Keeffe's husband Alfred Stieglitz considered that specific example as "the greatest picture in the world". This masterpiece is currently owned by the Met Museum.
1926 A Street
2018 SOLD for $ 13.3M by Sotheby's
In 1925 Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O'Keeffe move to the 30th floor of a brand new skyscraper in Manhattan. After some reticence about this unprecedented lifestyle, Georgia is captivated and begins to paint city views.
On November 14, 2018, Sotheby's sold for $ 13.3M A Street, oil on canvas 127 x 76 cm painted in 1926, lot 34.
With its sequences of skyscrapers on both sides of the street, this composition is almost symmetrical, like the 1922 reflection at Lake George. The walls are geometric, plain without windows, with a pleasant variation of pastel shades,
The roadway is not visible but the curved top of a street light shows that it is not far below. This tiny element judiciously centered on the lower edge becomes an anchor point from which the gaze can make an incessant back and forth through the central breach of the sky.
In the same year Georgia's close-ups of flowers caused a sensation in New York's artistic circles by their possible interpretation as female organs. Georgia, cautiously, will comment little. Stieglitz who usually supported new trends is reluctant by the masculinity of his wife's cityscapes. Indeed if he flipped A Street up and down, he may have seen an opened pair of legs.
On November 14, 2018, Sotheby's sold for $ 13.3M A Street, oil on canvas 127 x 76 cm painted in 1926, lot 34.
With its sequences of skyscrapers on both sides of the street, this composition is almost symmetrical, like the 1922 reflection at Lake George. The walls are geometric, plain without windows, with a pleasant variation of pastel shades,
The roadway is not visible but the curved top of a street light shows that it is not far below. This tiny element judiciously centered on the lower edge becomes an anchor point from which the gaze can make an incessant back and forth through the central breach of the sky.
In the same year Georgia's close-ups of flowers caused a sensation in New York's artistic circles by their possible interpretation as female organs. Georgia, cautiously, will comment little. Stieglitz who usually supported new trends is reluctant by the masculinity of his wife's cityscapes. Indeed if he flipped A Street up and down, he may have seen an opened pair of legs.
1927 White Rose with Larkspur
2022 SOLD for $ 26.7M by Christie's
Alfred Stieglitz was one of the first to understand the strong link between photography and art, and his gallery in New York was a meeting point for painters and photographers. After being one of the best authors of photos of the city, he became passionately interested in one subject, Georgia O'Keeffe, and married her in 1924.
It was not enough for Georgia to be Stieglitz's wife and model. She finds a small paradise in the grasslands around Lake George in upstate New York. Nature knows how to create perfect shapes much better than an artist can do. She watches the flowering of the weeds.
Georgia was an artist, and such a creative environment transformed her approach. She showed in her paintings some details of nature and also landscape shapes coming close to abstraction, like Weston, like Cunningham. Like them, she wanted to share what she saw.
In 1924, she began a series of oils on canvas on the theme of petunia flowers. The painting allowed a larger, and therefore more spectacular, size than the usual photos of the time.
An oil on canvas 76 x 91 cm painted in 1926 features two flowers of petunia. One is purple and almost black, and the other is pinkish and almost white. This opposition irresistibly evokes the positive negative duality of photography. It was sold for $ 4.1M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2010, lot 32. In the same year Man Ray, who knew Stieglitz, realized his famous photo "Noire et Blanche" (Black and White), showing a white woman's head next to a black African mask.
Georgia expresses the beauty of white flowers in a variety of viewpoints that reveal their sublime geometries in the process of their outbreak.
White rose with larkspur No. 1, oil on canvas 91 x 73 cm painted in 1927, was sold for $ 26.7M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 9. It had been kept by the artist until she presented it to a friend in 1946.
The pale flesh colored rose is displayed in a surrounding of blue and purple larkspur blooms and green leaves that fills the whole surface. The No. 2 of the same title hang until 1980 in Georgia's bedroom at Abiquiu. In this 1927 series the artist comes back once again to the relation between flower and abstraction, or in some tentative interpretation between flower and female human sex.
In a very different theme, another study of a pale tone, 61 x 91 cm painted in 1930, was sold for $ 3.4M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2010. Closer to the geometric abstraction, it features the mollusk that lives inside a clam shell.
It was not enough for Georgia to be Stieglitz's wife and model. She finds a small paradise in the grasslands around Lake George in upstate New York. Nature knows how to create perfect shapes much better than an artist can do. She watches the flowering of the weeds.
Georgia was an artist, and such a creative environment transformed her approach. She showed in her paintings some details of nature and also landscape shapes coming close to abstraction, like Weston, like Cunningham. Like them, she wanted to share what she saw.
In 1924, she began a series of oils on canvas on the theme of petunia flowers. The painting allowed a larger, and therefore more spectacular, size than the usual photos of the time.
An oil on canvas 76 x 91 cm painted in 1926 features two flowers of petunia. One is purple and almost black, and the other is pinkish and almost white. This opposition irresistibly evokes the positive negative duality of photography. It was sold for $ 4.1M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2010, lot 32. In the same year Man Ray, who knew Stieglitz, realized his famous photo "Noire et Blanche" (Black and White), showing a white woman's head next to a black African mask.
Georgia expresses the beauty of white flowers in a variety of viewpoints that reveal their sublime geometries in the process of their outbreak.
White rose with larkspur No. 1, oil on canvas 91 x 73 cm painted in 1927, was sold for $ 26.7M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 9. It had been kept by the artist until she presented it to a friend in 1946.
The pale flesh colored rose is displayed in a surrounding of blue and purple larkspur blooms and green leaves that fills the whole surface. The No. 2 of the same title hang until 1980 in Georgia's bedroom at Abiquiu. In this 1927 series the artist comes back once again to the relation between flower and abstraction, or in some tentative interpretation between flower and female human sex.
In a very different theme, another study of a pale tone, 61 x 91 cm painted in 1930, was sold for $ 3.4M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2010. Closer to the geometric abstraction, it features the mollusk that lives inside a clam shell.
1927 Autumn Leaf
2022 SOLD for $ 15.3M by Christie's
Georgia O'Keeffe had an unprecedented vision of the art of painting. She was able to display figurative themes in a spectacular symmetry with contrasts of rare colors.
Entered into the circle of the avant-garde New York photographers, she married Stieglitz in 1924. She moved to the brand new tallest residential building in New York City, while keeping in touch with nature in long walks in the hills near Lake George in upstate New York where her husband had an estate.
1926 was a year of great creativity, including her first cityscapes. She continued her series of petunia flowers, started two years earlier, inspired by the in depth photographic close up vision.
An oil on canvas 51 x 23 cm painted in 1926 is another step forward in her research of forms. This piece titled Autumn leaf with white flower stages a tobacco flower centered on its full frontal leaf, in a bold departure to a strict botanical combination.
Some slight departure in the symmetry remind the reality of nature, similarly as the dissymmetry in her views of New York skyscrapers. The contrast is striking between the bright star-shaped flower over the dark leaf and the soft background. The seasonal change is featured through the rare mauve and moss green hues which embellish that fallen leaf.
O'Keeffe enjoyed her own researches. She had temporarily reacquired this painting in 1950. It was sold for $ 4.95M from a lower estimate of $ 3M by Christie's on May 18, 2021, lot 7.
Autumn Leaves N° 2, oil on canvas 81 x 53 cm painted in 1927, goes closer to abstraction. In that fully filled and nearly symmetrical flattened composition, the decorative flower of the example above has been removed and the green leaf is surrounded by the vibrant colors of the fall. Small gaps at the lower edge of the oak leaf may be interpreted as a memento mori.
It was sold for $ 4.3M by Sotheby's on November 29, 2012, lot 10 and for $ 15.3M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 45.
Entered into the circle of the avant-garde New York photographers, she married Stieglitz in 1924. She moved to the brand new tallest residential building in New York City, while keeping in touch with nature in long walks in the hills near Lake George in upstate New York where her husband had an estate.
1926 was a year of great creativity, including her first cityscapes. She continued her series of petunia flowers, started two years earlier, inspired by the in depth photographic close up vision.
An oil on canvas 51 x 23 cm painted in 1926 is another step forward in her research of forms. This piece titled Autumn leaf with white flower stages a tobacco flower centered on its full frontal leaf, in a bold departure to a strict botanical combination.
Some slight departure in the symmetry remind the reality of nature, similarly as the dissymmetry in her views of New York skyscrapers. The contrast is striking between the bright star-shaped flower over the dark leaf and the soft background. The seasonal change is featured through the rare mauve and moss green hues which embellish that fallen leaf.
O'Keeffe enjoyed her own researches. She had temporarily reacquired this painting in 1950. It was sold for $ 4.95M from a lower estimate of $ 3M by Christie's on May 18, 2021, lot 7.
Autumn Leaves N° 2, oil on canvas 81 x 53 cm painted in 1927, goes closer to abstraction. In that fully filled and nearly symmetrical flattened composition, the decorative flower of the example above has been removed and the green leaf is surrounded by the vibrant colors of the fall. Small gaps at the lower edge of the oak leaf may be interpreted as a memento mori.
It was sold for $ 4.3M by Sotheby's on November 29, 2012, lot 10 and for $ 15.3M by Christie's on November 9, 2022, lot 45.
1928 Red Poppy
2024 SOLD for $ 16.5M by Christie's
In the art of Georgia O'Keeffe the shape precedes the color which she considers as the achievement of the work. She once said : "What is my experience of the flower if not color ?".
In full frontal view the red poppy blossom is perfect and its bright red often delighted the painters. She only executed six oil paintings of that species, three of them in large size. A 1927 example displays two blossoms pressed against one another.
Painted in 1928, the final opus is a striking oversized portrait of the flower in vertical format with a superb gradation of each petal from orange to red with a few yellow elements. The deep red center is the focal point. Three edges are trimmed by the frame. A neutral background highlights the flower.
This oil on canvas 92 x 76 cm was sold for $ 16.5M from a lower estimate of $ 10M by Christie's on May 16, 2024, lot 6 B. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
In 1996 another example from that series was selected by the US Postal Service for editing a stamp representing Georgia's art.
She always used to comment her art with a rare self understanding. She once explained as follows her extreme close up series of flowers : "Nobody sees a flower, really - It is so small - We haven't time, and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time."
In full frontal view the red poppy blossom is perfect and its bright red often delighted the painters. She only executed six oil paintings of that species, three of them in large size. A 1927 example displays two blossoms pressed against one another.
Painted in 1928, the final opus is a striking oversized portrait of the flower in vertical format with a superb gradation of each petal from orange to red with a few yellow elements. The deep red center is the focal point. Three edges are trimmed by the frame. A neutral background highlights the flower.
This oil on canvas 92 x 76 cm was sold for $ 16.5M from a lower estimate of $ 10M by Christie's on May 16, 2024, lot 6 B. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
In 1996 another example from that series was selected by the US Postal Service for editing a stamp representing Georgia's art.
She always used to comment her art with a rare self understanding. She once explained as follows her extreme close up series of flowers : "Nobody sees a flower, really - It is so small - We haven't time, and to see takes time, like to have a friend takes time."
1930 White Calico Rose
2023 SOLD for $ 13M by Christie's
Georgia O'Keeffe enjoys enlarging the details of the blooms, mostly when they are hardly visible with the naked eye. She paints them in delicate pale hues.
The white calico rose is a typical flower of the Southwest, used to express mortality. Represented in fabric or paper, they adorn graves and altars in the New Mexico desert. O'Keeffe sometimes associates it in a memento mori with a cow's skull, the arch-symbol of the Wild West.
White Calico Rose, oil on canvas 76 x 91 cm, was painted in 1930 after she came back from her summer time in New Mexico. This close up view is taken from over, in the exquisite pale tones of a pure and chaste palette over a dark background. There may be a doubt whether the model was the flower or its perfectly rendered artifact. It was sold for $ 13M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Christie's on May 11, 2023, lot 38A.
In another theme, a study in pale tones 61 x 91 cm painted in the same year was sold for $ 3.4M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2010. Closer to the geometric abstraction, it features the mollusk that lives inside a clam shell.
The white calico rose is a typical flower of the Southwest, used to express mortality. Represented in fabric or paper, they adorn graves and altars in the New Mexico desert. O'Keeffe sometimes associates it in a memento mori with a cow's skull, the arch-symbol of the Wild West.
White Calico Rose, oil on canvas 76 x 91 cm, was painted in 1930 after she came back from her summer time in New Mexico. This close up view is taken from over, in the exquisite pale tones of a pure and chaste palette over a dark background. There may be a doubt whether the model was the flower or its perfectly rendered artifact. It was sold for $ 13M from a lower estimate of $ 6M by Christie's on May 11, 2023, lot 38A.
In another theme, a study in pale tones 61 x 91 cm painted in the same year was sold for $ 3.4M by Sotheby's on May 19, 2010. Closer to the geometric abstraction, it features the mollusk that lives inside a clam shell.
1932 Jimson Weed
2014 SOLD for $ 44.4M by Sotheby's
The beauty of nature was the main inspiration for Georgia O'Keeffe. Painter amidst the circle of photographers led by her husband Alfred Stieglitz, she wanted to see everything from larger landscapes to tiniest details. She regularly visited the wonderful site of Taos.
She is not a botanist but there is no need to be a scientist for being fascinated by the datura, a wild herb that is particularly abundant in New Mexico. Its trumpet flowers appear at the cool of the evening with subtle shades of colors on a white background. A powerful hallucinogen, this plant is locally called Jimson weed and most commonly Devil's snare.
Painted in 1932, Jimson weed - white flower No.1 is a beautiful portrait of a flower. Inspired by macrophotography, it is an invitation to enter full front into the intimate secrets of a disproportionately enlarged datura. This oil on canvas is measuring 122 x 107 cm, a large format for the artist at that time.
This painting was sold for $ 44.4M from an estimate of $ 10M by Sotheby's on November 20, 2014, lot 11. It was deaccessioned by the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe NM with the consent of the donor. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
She is not a botanist but there is no need to be a scientist for being fascinated by the datura, a wild herb that is particularly abundant in New Mexico. Its trumpet flowers appear at the cool of the evening with subtle shades of colors on a white background. A powerful hallucinogen, this plant is locally called Jimson weed and most commonly Devil's snare.
Painted in 1932, Jimson weed - white flower No.1 is a beautiful portrait of a flower. Inspired by macrophotography, it is an invitation to enter full front into the intimate secrets of a disproportionately enlarged datura. This oil on canvas is measuring 122 x 107 cm, a large format for the artist at that time.
This painting was sold for $ 44.4M from an estimate of $ 10M by Sotheby's on November 20, 2014, lot 11. It was deaccessioned by the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe NM with the consent of the donor. Please watch the video shared by Sotheby's.
1936 Black Iris VI
2023 SOLD for $ 21M by Christie's
Georgia O'Keeffe came back to her successful picture of the Black Iris conceived in 1926.
The version VI, oil on canvas 91 x 61 cm, was painted in 1936 with tonal changes from purple and pale pink to black on a background of soft grays, not fully cancelling the green stem. Compared with the earlier version, the botanical details are sharper and more voluptuous. The dark center is repositioned in the middle of the composition.
The VI belonged to Paul G. Allen who was a great admirer of anything O'Keeffe. From that collection, it was sold for $ 21M from a lower estimate of $ 5M by Christie's on May 11, 2023, lot 36A.
A flamboyant pink spotted lily viewed in full front with its stamens and leaves against a light blue background, oil on canvas 30.5 x 25.4 cm painted by Georgia O'Keeffe in 1936, was sold for $ 6.8M by Sotheby's on November 16, 2021, lot 4.
The version VI, oil on canvas 91 x 61 cm, was painted in 1936 with tonal changes from purple and pale pink to black on a background of soft grays, not fully cancelling the green stem. Compared with the earlier version, the botanical details are sharper and more voluptuous. The dark center is repositioned in the middle of the composition.
The VI belonged to Paul G. Allen who was a great admirer of anything O'Keeffe. From that collection, it was sold for $ 21M from a lower estimate of $ 5M by Christie's on May 11, 2023, lot 36A.
A flamboyant pink spotted lily viewed in full front with its stamens and leaves against a light blue background, oil on canvas 30.5 x 25.4 cm painted by Georgia O'Keeffe in 1936, was sold for $ 6.8M by Sotheby's on November 16, 2021, lot 4.
1936 Red Hills
2022 SOLD for $ 12.3M by Christie's
The art by Georgia O'Keeffe explores new paths. She begins by being a pioneer of abstract art but that does not satisfy her. This daughter of a dairy farmer from Wisconsin wants to be close to nature. She develops two opposing themes during her stays in Lake George, both in architectural compositions : the grand landscape and the intimate detail of the flower.
During a tour of the west Rebecca Strand has an intuition : her friend Georgia will be able to express the wild power of the rolling hills of New Mexico. In 1929 the two women leave New York City and their husbands for a first long stay in Taos where they will return for several consecutive summers.
Georgia is immediately seduced by these pure landscapes that are not soiled by vegetation. In a spontaneously Humboldtian vision, she finds the biomorphic dimension of these dry lands flooded by sunlight.
Her paintings in Taos highlight this formal discovery without altering the colors. A view of sandy hills near Taos, oil on canvas laid down on board 45 x 61 cm painted in 1929, was sold for $ 2.65M by Christie's on May 9, 2018, lot 406. Another view of the same hill, oil on canvas 41 x 76 cm painted in 1930, was sold for $ 2.46M by Christie's on November 10, 2022, lot 128.
On the Old Santa Fe Road, oil on canvas 41 x 76 cm painted in 1930 or 1931, was sold for $ 5.1M by Sotheby's on November 20, 2014, lot 24.
Georgia was convinced by the beauty of the desert and made almost annual trips to New Mexico. A panoramic view in bright colors of the mountain range near Abiquiu, oil on canvas 41 x 91 cm painted in 1931, was sold for for $ 8.4M by Christie's on May 9, 2018, lot 404.
Georgia is so delighted by Abiquiu that she will install permanently in this site from 1934.
Red Hills with Pedernal, White clouds is a view from Ghost Ranch, a cottage that she will later purchase. This oil on canvas 51 x 76 cm painted in 1936 is a symphony of vibrant hues with a beautiful waving parallel between the top of the red sandy hills and the dark blue Pedernal, a mystic Navajo mesa 8 km away on the horizon. She will say with a great deal of humor : "It's my private mountain, it belongs to me, God told me if I painted it enough, I could have it".
It was sold by Christie's for $ 4.5M on May 19, 2016, lot 10, and for $ 12.3M on November 9, 2022, lot 28.
During a tour of the west Rebecca Strand has an intuition : her friend Georgia will be able to express the wild power of the rolling hills of New Mexico. In 1929 the two women leave New York City and their husbands for a first long stay in Taos where they will return for several consecutive summers.
Georgia is immediately seduced by these pure landscapes that are not soiled by vegetation. In a spontaneously Humboldtian vision, she finds the biomorphic dimension of these dry lands flooded by sunlight.
Her paintings in Taos highlight this formal discovery without altering the colors. A view of sandy hills near Taos, oil on canvas laid down on board 45 x 61 cm painted in 1929, was sold for $ 2.65M by Christie's on May 9, 2018, lot 406. Another view of the same hill, oil on canvas 41 x 76 cm painted in 1930, was sold for $ 2.46M by Christie's on November 10, 2022, lot 128.
On the Old Santa Fe Road, oil on canvas 41 x 76 cm painted in 1930 or 1931, was sold for $ 5.1M by Sotheby's on November 20, 2014, lot 24.
Georgia was convinced by the beauty of the desert and made almost annual trips to New Mexico. A panoramic view in bright colors of the mountain range near Abiquiu, oil on canvas 41 x 91 cm painted in 1931, was sold for for $ 8.4M by Christie's on May 9, 2018, lot 404.
Georgia is so delighted by Abiquiu that she will install permanently in this site from 1934.
Red Hills with Pedernal, White clouds is a view from Ghost Ranch, a cottage that she will later purchase. This oil on canvas 51 x 76 cm painted in 1936 is a symphony of vibrant hues with a beautiful waving parallel between the top of the red sandy hills and the dark blue Pedernal, a mystic Navajo mesa 8 km away on the horizon. She will say with a great deal of humor : "It's my private mountain, it belongs to me, God told me if I painted it enough, I could have it".
It was sold by Christie's for $ 4.5M on May 19, 2016, lot 10, and for $ 12.3M on November 9, 2022, lot 28.
1942 Leaves of a Plant
2025 SOLD for $ 13M by Sotheby's
The highly independent Georgia O'Keeffe was reluctant to work on order. In 1939 she nevertheless accepted a commission from a New York advertising firm to make images for the Hawaiian Pineapple Company. She expected discovering the lush aspects of tropical flora.
She made a nine week stay in Hawaii in February and March and was not disappointed. She created 22 paintings either in the islands or at home from memory and sketches. Crab's Claw Ginger, featuring a variant of ginger also named heliconia, was one of two images accepted by the customer for the print campaign including ads in Vogue, The Saturday Evening Post and other magazines.
This oil on canvas 48 x 41 cm was sold for $ 7.7M by Phillips on November 17, 2021, lot 9. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The spectacular red flower with a large green leaf is set against an open landscape made of the clouded blue sky, the deep blue ocean and an abstract shore, in opposition of the usual practice of the artist for close surroundings.
Painted in 1942, Leaves of a plant is the only example in period of the artist revisiting the Hawaiian flora from her home on New Mexico. This oil on canvas 102 x 76 cm was sold for $ 13M from a lower estimate of $ 8M by Sotheby's on May 13, 2025, lot 42. Vibrant red and green leaves surround a soft purple blossom against a white space. The spectacular plant known as fire ball is evoking a volcanic eruption.
She made a nine week stay in Hawaii in February and March and was not disappointed. She created 22 paintings either in the islands or at home from memory and sketches. Crab's Claw Ginger, featuring a variant of ginger also named heliconia, was one of two images accepted by the customer for the print campaign including ads in Vogue, The Saturday Evening Post and other magazines.
This oil on canvas 48 x 41 cm was sold for $ 7.7M by Phillips on November 17, 2021, lot 9. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
The spectacular red flower with a large green leaf is set against an open landscape made of the clouded blue sky, the deep blue ocean and an abstract shore, in opposition of the usual practice of the artist for close surroundings.
Painted in 1942, Leaves of a plant is the only example in period of the artist revisiting the Hawaiian flora from her home on New Mexico. This oil on canvas 102 x 76 cm was sold for $ 13M from a lower estimate of $ 8M by Sotheby's on May 13, 2025, lot 42. Vibrant red and green leaves surround a soft purple blossom against a white space. The spectacular plant known as fire ball is evoking a volcanic eruption.
