US Painting before 1940
See also : USA USA II O'Keeffe 18th century painting Development of USA Germany Germany II Women artists Groups Flowers Alps Horse Sport in art
Chronology : 1770-1779 1850-1859 1880-1889 1905 1910 1920-1929 1927 1928 1929 1932 1934 1936
Chronology : 1770-1779 1850-1859 1880-1889 1905 1910 1920-1929 1927 1928 1929 1932 1934 1936
1779 George Washington at Princeton by Charles Willson Peale
2006 SOLD 21.3 M$ including premium by Christie's
narrated in 2020
On June 14, 1774, the Continental Congress creates an army to carry on the War of Independence. Its commander-in-chief is George Washington, a Virginia planter who is also an officer and a veteran of the Seven Years' War.
Washington is towering by his tall stature and by his phlegm, and surprises his assistants by his abnegation and his virtues. It is not enough. He had never exercised a command on the battlefield and his weak and inexperienced army has everything to learn.
Everything seems easy for the British in December 1776, to the point that they decide to take up their winter quarters in New Jersey, waiting for the sunny days to capture Philadelphia. George Washington will soon be unable to pay his exhausted troops. In a heroic burst, he surprises the British garrisons in Trenton and Princeton. These were the first ever victories of the American army.
The war remains undecided, and they must continue to set an example. On January 18, 1779, the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania commissions a portrait of General Washington to Charles Willson Peale.
The young artist had made an early portrait of the hero at Mount Vernon in 1772. He had been part of the reinforcements from the militias of Pennsylvania who had contributed to the victories of Trenton and Princeton, and had been appreciated by the soldiers for the miniature portraits painted on the field of battle.
The work which responds to the order from Pennsylvania is a full-length standing portrait of Washington after the Battle of Princeton. The hero is displayed in his signature attitude of modesty, without the face or the clothing having been embellished. He puts his hand on a cannon. Symbols of victory include a column of British prisoners with their red coats. This oil on canvas 246 x 149 cm is kept at the museum of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
The strengthening of the young nation also includes an international propaganda to its new French and Spanish allies. Autograph replicas are made by the artist. One of them, oil on canvas 244 x 156 cm dated 1779, was conveyed to Spain by an American diplomat. The political message gradually lost its force and the painting ended up being bequeathed to a Capuchin school in the Basque region, where it was bought around 1918 by an antiquarian dealer from New York.
This portrait of Washington at Princeton was sold for $ 21.3M including premium by Christie's on January 21, 2006, lot 547, over a lower estimate of $ 10M. Please watch the video prepared in 2015 by the auction house to remind the sale of this outstanding painting, the last of its type in private hands.
Washington is towering by his tall stature and by his phlegm, and surprises his assistants by his abnegation and his virtues. It is not enough. He had never exercised a command on the battlefield and his weak and inexperienced army has everything to learn.
Everything seems easy for the British in December 1776, to the point that they decide to take up their winter quarters in New Jersey, waiting for the sunny days to capture Philadelphia. George Washington will soon be unable to pay his exhausted troops. In a heroic burst, he surprises the British garrisons in Trenton and Princeton. These were the first ever victories of the American army.
The war remains undecided, and they must continue to set an example. On January 18, 1779, the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania commissions a portrait of General Washington to Charles Willson Peale.
The young artist had made an early portrait of the hero at Mount Vernon in 1772. He had been part of the reinforcements from the militias of Pennsylvania who had contributed to the victories of Trenton and Princeton, and had been appreciated by the soldiers for the miniature portraits painted on the field of battle.
The work which responds to the order from Pennsylvania is a full-length standing portrait of Washington after the Battle of Princeton. The hero is displayed in his signature attitude of modesty, without the face or the clothing having been embellished. He puts his hand on a cannon. Symbols of victory include a column of British prisoners with their red coats. This oil on canvas 246 x 149 cm is kept at the museum of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts.
The strengthening of the young nation also includes an international propaganda to its new French and Spanish allies. Autograph replicas are made by the artist. One of them, oil on canvas 244 x 156 cm dated 1779, was conveyed to Spain by an American diplomat. The political message gradually lost its force and the painting ended up being bequeathed to a Capuchin school in the Basque region, where it was bought around 1918 by an antiquarian dealer from New York.
This portrait of Washington at Princeton was sold for $ 21.3M including premium by Christie's on January 21, 2006, lot 547, over a lower estimate of $ 10M. Please watch the video prepared in 2015 by the auction house to remind the sale of this outstanding painting, the last of its type in private hands.
1851 Washington crossing the Delaware by Leutze
2022 SOLD for $ 45M by Christie's
On Christmas night, 1776 the surprise crossing of the half frozen Delaware river by General Washington changed the course of the Revolutionary War hampered by a previous series of defeats.
That epic moment was painted by the German-born Emanuel Leutze in the wake of the 1848 European events.
The tall General is straight standing at the bow with a foot on the edge, looking ahead with a stiff determination. The US flag in its 1777 Stars and Stripes version is floating in the wind behind the hero. The boat is populated by various officers and troops including a rowing Black man, a Scot and a rowing woman, highlighting the proud Washington as the father of the US nation as a whole.
Three paintings were executed by Leutze with his assistant Eastman Johnson. Made in 1850, the original version was destroyed in a World War II bombing. The second full scale 3.80 x 6.50 m canvas is housed by the Met Museum.
Prepared in 1851 in parallel with the Met example, the third piece on a reduced scale was commissioned by the Paris art editors Goupil and Vibert for an engraving. It was on loan at the White House from 1979 to 2014. This oil on canvas 102 x 173 cm was sold for $ 45M from a lower estimate of $ 15M by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 30C.
A pastiche painted by Robert Colescott in 1975 replacing the general by an African American scientist and the troops by a gang of joyful Negroes was sold for $ 15.3M by Sotheby's in 2021. Another pastiche painted in 2018 by Jon McNaughton features President Trump leading his team by night with an oil lamp.
That epic moment was painted by the German-born Emanuel Leutze in the wake of the 1848 European events.
The tall General is straight standing at the bow with a foot on the edge, looking ahead with a stiff determination. The US flag in its 1777 Stars and Stripes version is floating in the wind behind the hero. The boat is populated by various officers and troops including a rowing Black man, a Scot and a rowing woman, highlighting the proud Washington as the father of the US nation as a whole.
Three paintings were executed by Leutze with his assistant Eastman Johnson. Made in 1850, the original version was destroyed in a World War II bombing. The second full scale 3.80 x 6.50 m canvas is housed by the Met Museum.
Prepared in 1851 in parallel with the Met example, the third piece on a reduced scale was commissioned by the Paris art editors Goupil and Vibert for an engraving. It was on loan at the White House from 1979 to 2014. This oil on canvas 102 x 173 cm was sold for $ 45M from a lower estimate of $ 15M by Christie's on May 12, 2022, lot 30C.
A pastiche painted by Robert Colescott in 1975 replacing the general by an African American scientist and the troops by a gang of joyful Negroes was sold for $ 15.3M by Sotheby's in 2021. Another pastiche painted in 2018 by Jon McNaughton features President Trump leading his team by night with an oil lamp.
#AuctionUpdate Emmanuel Leutze’s ‘Washington Crossing the Delaware’ sets an auction record for the artist; price realized $45 million pic.twitter.com/waEDUwjlaT
— Christie's (@ChristiesInc) May 13, 2022
1905 A Siesta by Sargent
2004 SOLD for $ 23.5M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2020
Influenced by impressionism, John Singer Sargent was one of the best portrait painters of his time. As he approaches fifty, he wants to live his life better. He has been traveling throughout Europe since his youth. He will now refocus his art on the landscapes of his travels and on the holiday scenes with his friends.
Group with Parasols (A Siesta) is an oil on canvas 55 x 71 cm painted in 1905. Two women and two men enjoy the farniente in a meadow on the border of a wood in the Swiss Alps.
The colors are very contrasted, in the chiaroscuro of a hot summer day. The removal of details takes some parts of the image to the borders of abstraction.
One of the men has his head resting on the belly of his mistress who is peacefully dozing under her white parasol. The painting was dedicated to this friend. This extramarital relationship, as well as the different position of each of the four sleepers, matches the artist's deep desire for a free life.
Group with Parasols was sold for $ 23.5M including premium by Sotheby's on December 1, 2004 over a lower estimate of $ 9M.
Group with Parasols (A Siesta) is an oil on canvas 55 x 71 cm painted in 1905. Two women and two men enjoy the farniente in a meadow on the border of a wood in the Swiss Alps.
The colors are very contrasted, in the chiaroscuro of a hot summer day. The removal of details takes some parts of the image to the borders of abstraction.
One of the men has his head resting on the belly of his mistress who is peacefully dozing under her white parasol. The painting was dedicated to this friend. This extramarital relationship, as well as the different position of each of the four sleepers, matches the artist's deep desire for a free life.
Group with Parasols was sold for $ 23.5M including premium by Sotheby's on December 1, 2004 over a lower estimate of $ 9M.
1910 Polo Crowd by George Bellows
1999 SOLD for $ 27.5 M including premium by Sotheby's
narrated in 2021
Crowds in New York are one of the favorite themes with which Georges Bellows shows enthusiasm, movement, play. In 1909 he adds sport. His boxing paintings show the action in progress, in a close-up snapshot that photography was only just beginning to be able to provide. The expressive style of the young artist marks his refusal of classicism.
Polo Crowd, oil on canvas 115 x 160 cm painted in 1910, confronts sport and its spectators. The game is on, including a prancing horse. The crowd, barely contained by light barriers, is made up of well-differentiated characters, as in real life. In a very dynamic contrast, peoples and horses appear bright against a very dark sky.
Bequeathed in 1998 by the Whitney estate to the Museum of Modern Art, Polo Crowd was sold by Sotheby's on December 1, 1999 for $ 27.5M including premium from a lower estimate of $ 10M. It was purchased at that sale by Bill Gates who was to hang it in the lobby of his personal library. The image is shared by Artnet.
Polo Crowd, oil on canvas 115 x 160 cm painted in 1910, confronts sport and its spectators. The game is on, including a prancing horse. The crowd, barely contained by light barriers, is made up of well-differentiated characters, as in real life. In a very dynamic contrast, peoples and horses appear bright against a very dark sky.
Bequeathed in 1998 by the Whitney estate to the Museum of Modern Art, Polo Crowd was sold by Sotheby's on December 1, 1999 for $ 27.5M including premium from a lower estimate of $ 10M. It was purchased at that sale by Bill Gates who was to hang it in the lobby of his personal library. The image is shared by Artnet.
1927 White Rose with Larkspur by O'Keeffe
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.
1928 View of New York by Edward Hopper
2013 SOLD 19 M$ including premium
Hopper does not want to be blinded by the foils of America, but he loves his country and New York. In reaction against his time, he developed a passion for anonymous houses in front of which he goes his way by road, rail or river. He does not know whether they are used or abandoned, but their menace of ruins are the symbol of the past that he does not wish to leave.
On May 23 in New York, Christie's sells Blackwell's Island, an oil on canvas painted in 1928, 88 x 151 cm, estimated $ 15M. It is a very good example showing the independence of Hopper against any art trend.
Blackwell's is part of Manhattan, but this district without skyscrapers chosen by Hopper to symbolize New York was known for its prison and penitentiary hospital. Always in search of the past, the artist pretends to ignore that its name was Welfare Island since 1921 (to become Roosevelt Island later).
On East River shore, buildings align with factory chimneys. A small motor boat, single direct example of a human activity, is almost out of field going to a future that does not concern us.
This is a very geometric composition with sharp colors. The sky is crossed by radiant tracks. All front sides of the buildings shine under the sun excepted one of them. The river is too blue, voluntarily, to capture all the attention. This landscape is not classical and is the opposite of impressionism. It is not far from surrealism. It is a Hopper.
POST SALE COMMENT
Hopper is always fascinating, and this painting is outstanding. It was sold $ 19M including premium.
On May 23 in New York, Christie's sells Blackwell's Island, an oil on canvas painted in 1928, 88 x 151 cm, estimated $ 15M. It is a very good example showing the independence of Hopper against any art trend.
Blackwell's is part of Manhattan, but this district without skyscrapers chosen by Hopper to symbolize New York was known for its prison and penitentiary hospital. Always in search of the past, the artist pretends to ignore that its name was Welfare Island since 1921 (to become Roosevelt Island later).
On East River shore, buildings align with factory chimneys. A small motor boat, single direct example of a human activity, is almost out of field going to a future that does not concern us.
This is a very geometric composition with sharp colors. The sky is crossed by radiant tracks. All front sides of the buildings shine under the sun excepted one of them. The river is too blue, voluntarily, to capture all the attention. This landscape is not classical and is the opposite of impressionism. It is not far from surrealism. It is a Hopper.
POST SALE COMMENT
Hopper is always fascinating, and this painting is outstanding. It was sold $ 19M including premium.
1929 Confrontation with the Modern Life
2018 SOLD for $ 92M including premium
Very francophile after a stay in Paris, Edward Hopper observes on his return to New York the differences in the art of living between the two continents. Everything is changing very quickly in the United States in the 1920s around a new organization of work that better incorporates women, respects their individuality better and gives them some freedom.
Hopper is taciturn and traditionalist. He very well appreciates that he cannot oppose these changes, just as he cannot do anything about the collapse of abandoned houses. His art is realistic but he builds his own universe like a surrealist.
Automat, painted in 1927, is a portrait of his wife Jo having a break in a self-service cafe. She is alone, pensive and a little tired, sitting in front of a round table in the back of a room without decoration.
Chop Suey, oil on canvas 81 x 96 cm painted in 1929, stages the same young woman in another cheap restaurant, seated in front of another woman who is seen from behind. Sitting at another table in the background, a couple chats.
The theme is definitely not narrative despite its appearances. We will not know who these characters are, why they are together. These Chinese cafes that then proliferate in the United States are a symbol of a new everyday life with new forms of banalities and also with the attractiveness and the threat of internationalization and depersonalization.
In new urban spaces, geometry becomes omnipresent. Chop Suey seduced the young Mark Rothko and much later influenced his division of surfaces into color fields.
Chop Suey is estimated $ 70M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 13, lot 12 B. The low resolution image is shared by Wikimedia for fair use. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
Hopper is taciturn and traditionalist. He very well appreciates that he cannot oppose these changes, just as he cannot do anything about the collapse of abandoned houses. His art is realistic but he builds his own universe like a surrealist.
Automat, painted in 1927, is a portrait of his wife Jo having a break in a self-service cafe. She is alone, pensive and a little tired, sitting in front of a round table in the back of a room without decoration.
Chop Suey, oil on canvas 81 x 96 cm painted in 1929, stages the same young woman in another cheap restaurant, seated in front of another woman who is seen from behind. Sitting at another table in the background, a couple chats.
The theme is definitely not narrative despite its appearances. We will not know who these characters are, why they are together. These Chinese cafes that then proliferate in the United States are a symbol of a new everyday life with new forms of banalities and also with the attractiveness and the threat of internationalization and depersonalization.
In new urban spaces, geometry becomes omnipresent. Chop Suey seduced the young Mark Rothko and much later influenced his division of surfaces into color fields.
Chop Suey is estimated $ 70M for sale by Christie's in New York on November 13, lot 12 B. The low resolution image is shared by Wikimedia for fair use. Please watch the video shared by the auction house.
1932 Jimson Weed by O'Keeffe
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. From 1929 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.
1934 Suburbs for Sale
2013 SOLD 40.5 M$ including premium
The house is for Hopper the theme that ensures the continuity of civilization. It symbolizes the past by surviving after the move or death of its residents. The 1929 crisis could only exacerbate his reluctant vision of the modern world.
Hopper is the most famous car user in the history of art. He tirelessly revisits the same places to perform sketches which he then reworks in his workshop in the form of large oil paintings.
Painted in 1934, East Wind over Weehawken, 86 x 128 cm, shows houses viewed from a small crossing of streets in suburban New Jersey. This place should support life but the streets are empty. These houses are promoted to the rank of major characters in the drama and wait for who knows what.
In the foreground, a tall unsightly city lamp divides the picture as if it were the keeper of nothingness. Seeking other marks, we see a sign at the limit of readability announcing For Sale. The moment before or after can reveal life. Two very small spots on far left edge are characters. Or not. Mankind does not matter.
This painting is estimated $ 22M, for sale by Christie 's in New York on December 5.
POST SALE COMMENT
The pessimistic view of civilization expressed by Hopper in the 1930s is still relevant. This outstanding example of his art has been sold for $ 40.5 million including premium.
The image is shared by Wikimedia :
Hopper is the most famous car user in the history of art. He tirelessly revisits the same places to perform sketches which he then reworks in his workshop in the form of large oil paintings.
Painted in 1934, East Wind over Weehawken, 86 x 128 cm, shows houses viewed from a small crossing of streets in suburban New Jersey. This place should support life but the streets are empty. These houses are promoted to the rank of major characters in the drama and wait for who knows what.
In the foreground, a tall unsightly city lamp divides the picture as if it were the keeper of nothingness. Seeking other marks, we see a sign at the limit of readability announcing For Sale. The moment before or after can reveal life. Two very small spots on far left edge are characters. Or not. Mankind does not matter.
This painting is estimated $ 22M, for sale by Christie 's in New York on December 5.
POST SALE COMMENT
The pessimistic view of civilization expressed by Hopper in the 1930s is still relevant. This outstanding example of his art has been sold for $ 40.5 million including premium.
The image is shared by Wikimedia :
1936 Black Iris by O'Keeffe
2023 SOLD for $ 21M by Christie's
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.
O'Keeffe came back to her successful bloom. 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.
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.
O'Keeffe came back to her successful bloom. 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.
