The waxy, long-stemmed calla lily captivated Georgia O'Keeffe in the 1920s. The calla lily was a popular subject in American art in the 1920s and 1930s, when it was fashionable to read sexual and psychological values into the blooms. (Lynes, Georgia O'Keeffe and the Calla Lily in American Art, 1860-1940, 2002). But O'Keeffe objected to this, and insisted that the point of painting any flower so closely and hypnotically was to make people see it for the first time.
Credit: Gift of the Woodward Foundation
1926
Oil on fiberboard
22.9 x 32.4cm
1978.34
Image and text: Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2024
Where you'll find this
Smithsonian American Art Museum
Permanent collection