Questroyal 2009

Georgia O’Keeffe ( 1887 – 1986 ) Plate 33 Pink Daisy with Iris , 1927 Oil on canvas board 9 3 / 4 x 5 15 / 16 inches Signed and dated on verso: Georgia OKeeffe / March – 1927 provenance The Intimate Gallery, NewYork (Alfred Stieglitz’s gallery) Mrs. Charles J. (Aline) Liebman, NewYork Florence Blumenthal, NewYork, sister of the above Estate of Florence Blumenthal Mrs. Charles J. (Aline) Liebman, NewYork Mrs. A. R. Berger, NewYork Sale, Christie’s, NewYork, May 21, 1998 , lot 185 Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico Spanierman Gallery, LLC, NewYork exhibited Hirschl & Adler Galleries, NewYork, 1978 literature Barbara Buhler Lynes, Georgia O’Keeffe: Catalogue Raisonné (NewHaven, Conn.: Yale University Press; Washington, D.C. : National Gallery of Art; Abiquiu, N.Mex. : The Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation, 1999 ), p. 336 , no. 582 . I submit that Georgia O’Keeffe is the foremost woman painter. She conceives a new problem, or perhaps she rekindles with a modern spark the fires of a long forgotten worship. oscar bluemner , artist, 1927 1 With regard to Miss O’Keeffe, the year 1927 wears a nimbus of special luster. It was then that she painted some of her most beautiful abstrac- tions. It was then, also, that she produced several of those exquisite small studies of shells and flower, which for many of us, perhaps, have come to represent this painter at her most sensitive best. edward alden jewell , art critic of The NewYork Times , 1933 2 Size Matters It would not be hyperbole to suggest that Georgia O’Keeffe’s monumental portraits of flowers are among the most recognized images in the world. It is fascinating, then, to note that O’Keeffe’s smaller pieces—the ones less known and rarely reproduced—are among her most prized. O’Keeffe remarked on her inclination to paint intimately sized floral works, stating, “If I could paint the flower exactly as I see it no one would see what I see because I would paint it small like the flower is small.” 3 Although she eventually settled on larger compositions that would “make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers,” O’Keeffe did produce a celebrated oeuvre of smaller works. Critic Edward Alden Jewell noted their excellence early on, reporting that in 1927 —the year Pink Daisy with Iris was painted—“she produced several of those exquisite small studies of shells and flower, which for many of us, perhaps, have come to represent this painter at her most sensitive best.” 4 History agreed with Jewell’s assess- ment; some fifty years later, then National Gallery curator Jack Cowart duly noted, “[O’Keeffe] brilliantly monumentalized her subjects, whether she treated them in a 48 x 40 -inch or a 5 x 7 -inch canvas. Her small works, though, are among her best and most striking ones.” 5 — jlw O’Keeffe’s works are in museums nationwide, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Museum of Modern Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, Philadelphia Museum of Art, National Gallery of Art, Cleveland Museum of Art, Dallas Museum of Art, and Georgia O’Keeffe Museum. 1 Statement from “O’ Keeffe Exhibition Checklist” (NewYork: An American Place, 1935 ). Illustrated in Barbara Buhler Lynes, Georgia O’Keeffe, Catalogue Raisonné, vol. 2 (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press; Washington, D.C.; National Gallery of Art; Abiquiu, N.M.: Georgia O’Keeffe Foundation, 1999 ). Appendix III , p. 1125 , fig. 57 ; attribution is listed as “Oscar Bluemner, Exhibition 1927 of Georgia O’Keeffe The Intimate Gallery— Room 303 .” 2 Edward Alden Jewell, “Georgia O’Keeffe’s Paintings Offer Five-Year Retrospect at An American Place.” The NewYork Times , January 13, 1933. 3 Statement from Georgia O’Keeffe: Exhibition of Oils and Pastels , exhibition brochure (NewYork: An American Place, 1939 ). Quoted in Lynes, Appendix I , p. 1099 . 4 Jewell, “Georgia O’Keeffe,” p. 13 . 5 Jack Cowart, “Georgia O’Keeffe: Art and Artist,” in Jack Cowart and Juan Hamilton, Georgia O’Keeffe: Art and Letters (Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, 1987 ), p. 4 .