Yellow Calla

Media - 1978.34 - SAAM-1978.34_1-000001 - 5080
Copied Georgia O'Keeffe, Yellow Calla, 1926, oil on fiberboard, 9 x 12 3⁄4 in. (22.9 x 32.4 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of the Woodward Foundation, 1978.34

Artwork Details

Title
Yellow Calla
Artist
Date
1926
Location
Dimensions
9 x 12 3⁄4 in. (22.9 x 32.4 cm)
Markings
back center in pencil: $850 backing left center in pencil: Calla Lilly backing upper right in ballpoint pen and ink: Downtown Gallery/5344 frame recto lover center incised and in ink: GEORGIA O'KEEFFE/Yellow Calla (1926) LENT BY THE WOODWARD FOUNDATION
Credit Line
Gift of the Woodward Foundation
Mediums
Mediums Description
oil on fiberboard
Classifications
Highlights
Keywords
  • Still life
  • Object — flower — lily
Object Number
1978.34
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/1978.34

Artwork Description

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.