Georgia O'Keefe
11/15/1887 - 3/6/1986
Early Life and Marriage
Born in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin she was schooled in Wisconsin, Chicago, and New York. She was a teacher and a student of art, traveling continuously across the states until meeting her future husband and settling down. Twenty-three years her senior, Alfred Stieglitz worked as a photographer, Georgia had become his muse. Their relationships lasted eighteen years and they were happily married for four years of those years.
Photographs by Stieglitz
Throughout her thirties, she became Stieglitz's model for many of his shoots.
Her Later Years
Growing old, O'Keefe's eyesight was compromised by macular degeneration, which ultimately led to the loss of her central vision. This left her with only her peripheral vision.
More Photography
In many photographs, Stieglitz focuses on her hands, using them to convey feelings through his work.
Her Work
O'Keefe's work mostly consisted of art concentrated on skulls and flowers. She painted with watercolor, occasionally using oil paints and charcoals. Throughout the years O'Keefe has earned the name as the "Mother of American Moderism".
Horse's Skull with Pink Rose
Owned by the Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Head with Broken Pot
Displayed in the Georgia O'Keefe Museum
Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1
Broke the auction record for a work by a female artist, it sold for 44.4M.
Later Years and Death
In the later years of her life, she moved to New Mexico to paint the surrounding landscapes. After her eyesight was compromised by macular degeneration, which ultimately led to the loss of her central vision. She was left her with only her peripheral vision, so she continued to only use pencil and charcoal in her work. Juan Hamilton, the help she had hired to do odd jobs then taught her how to work with clay, so she started to produce clay pots in watercolor. In her late life she wrote a book and allowed a film to produced about her.
O'Keefe died at the age of 98, her body was cremated and her ashed were scattered to the wind at the top of Pedernal Mountain.