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Top of her class
From 1905 to 1906, O'Keeffe studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago under John Vanderpoel. She ranked at the top of her competitive class, but contracted typhoid fever and had to take a year off to recuperate.
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Some relationships end badly, others start badly
In 1916 photographer Alfred Stieglitz was shown O'Keeffe's drawings and exhibited them without her permission at his gallery, 291. O'Keeffe was angered, but in 1918 she moved to New York at Stieglitz' request and began working seriously as an artist. By 1924 they were married.
Georgia O'Keeffe (1918) by Alfred StieglitzThe Metropolitan Museum of Art
In the words of her biographer Benita Eisler
O'Keeffe and Stieglitz' relationship was "a system of deals and trade-offs, tacitly agreed to and carried out, for the most part, without the exchange of a word. Preferring avoidance to confrontation on most issues, O'Keeffe was the principal agent of collusion in their union."
The Black Iris (1926) by Georgia O'KeeffeGeorgia O'Keeffe Museum
Sometimes a flower is just a flower
While in New York, O'Keeffe made around 200 large-scale, abstracted paintings of flowers. While they have often been associated with pictures of genitalia, O'Keeffe herself rejected the notion, saying they were 'just flowers'.
Purple Hills Ghost Ranch - 2 / Purple Hills No II (1934) by Georgia O'KeeffeGeorgia O'Keeffe Museum
Escape to the desert
From 1929, following the breakdown of her relationship with Stieglitz and the loss of a major mural commission, O'Keeffe made frequent trips to the deserts and mountains of New Mexico. Here she painted the landscapes throughout the day, from dawn until dusk.
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Cerro Pedernal
This was a favourite subject for O'Keeffe, who once said, "It's my private mountain. It belongs to me. God told me if I painted it enough, I could have it."
By John LeongardLIFE Photo Collection
1945-1949: A New Beginning
In 1945 O'Keeffe set up a home and studio in New Mexico. A year later, Stieglitz died, and O'Keeffe stayed in New York to settle his estate. It wasn't until 1949 that she actually moved permanently to New Mexico.
By John LeongardLIFE Photo Collection
A 'prickly' character
O'Keeffe lived alone, though she hosted many visiting artists and photographers including Todd Webb and Eliot Porter. In 1973, she hired 27-year-old John Bruce Hamilton as a live-in ceramic assistant and later, as she became more frail, a nurse and caretaker.
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Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Today, the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe holds over 3,000 works comprises 140 O'Keeffe oil paintings, nearly 700 drawings, and hundreds of additional works dating from 1901 to 1984, the year that failing vision forced O'Keeffe into retirement.
Pedernal (1941) by Georgia O'KeeffeGeorgia O'Keeffe Museum
Next up, immerse yourself in art with these 5 Landscapes You'll Love to Zoom Into, including O'Keeffe's painting, Pedernal.
