Hibiscus with Plumeria

Georgia O'Keeffe, Hibiscus with Plumeria, 1939, oil on canvas, Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Sam Rose and Julie Walters, 2004.30.6
Copied Georgia O'Keeffe, Hibiscus with Plumeria, 1939, oil on canvas, 40 x 30 in. (101.6 x 76.2 cm), Smithsonian American Art Museum, Gift of Sam Rose and Julie Walters, 2004.30.6

Artwork Details

Title
Hibiscus with Plumeria
Artist
Date
1939
Location
Dimensions
40 x 30 in. (101.6 x 76.2 cm)
Credit Line
Gift of Sam Rose and Julie Walters
Mediums Description
oil on canvas
Classifications
Subjects
  • Object — flower — hibiscus
  • Object — flower — plumeria
Object Number
2004.30.6
Linked Open Data
https://edan.si.edu/saam/id/object/2004.30.6

Artwork Description

Intrigued by the opportunity to paint tropical flora, Georgia O'Keeffe accepted an offer from the Dole Pineapple Company for an all-expenses paid trip to the state of Hawaii to create a painting for the company's 1939 advertising campaign. She visited Maui, O'ahu, Hawai'i, and Kaua'i, painting the islands' dramatic gorges, waterfalls, and tropical flowers, among them Hibiscus with Plumeria. Pink and yellow petals towering against a clear blue sky transform the delicate blossoms into a joyous monumentality. But of the twenty canvases of Hawaii she completed, none showed a pineapple. Only after Dole had one flown to New York did she finally, if reluctantly, paint the desired fruit.

Related Books

crosscurrents_500.jpg
Crosscurrents: Modern Art from the Sam Rose and Julie Walters Collection
In eighty-eight striking paintings and sculptures, Crosscurrents captures modernism as it moved from early abstractions by O’Keeffe, to Picasso and Pollock in midcentury, to pop riffs on contemporary culture by Roy Lichtenstein, Wayne Thiebaud, and Tom Wesselmann—all illustrating the complexity and energy of a distinctly American modernism.