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Georgia O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz kissing at Lake George, July 10, 1929, Alfred Stieglitz / Georgia O'Keeffe Archive, Yale University Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

Alfred Stieglitz attached this photograph to a letter for Georgia O'Keeffe. Below the photograph he writes, “I have destroyed 300 prints today. And much more literature. I haven't the heart to destroy this...”

This letter was written to O’Keeffe about five years after she and Stieglitz were married and when she began to work for periods of time in New Mexico. As Yale University’s Beinecke Rare Book and Manuscript Library explains for their Alfred Stieglitz/Georgia O'Keeffe Archive, the couple’s great love for each other was “made all the more remarkable when it spanned great periods of physical separation” as O’Keeffe spent more time working in the American Southwest (Yale). Stieglitz’s affection for O’Keeffe remained strong despite physical separation through out their relationship, which is made evident in his inability to destroy the photograph of he and O’keeffe and his sending of the photograph to her. One can see their passion in the photograph and in Stieglitz’s words. 

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Georgia O'Keeffe at 291, Alfred Stieglitz, 1917, platinum print, 9 9/16 x 7 5/8 in., Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

This photograph of O’Keeffe was taken by Stieglitz in front of one of her paintings hanging at his 291 gallery. According to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, in Santa Fe, New Mexico, Stieglitz was the first to exhibit her work 1916 and “By the mid-1920s, O’Keeffe was recognized as one of America’s most important and successful artists . . .” (O’Keeffe). From Stieglitz’s support of her, O’Keeffe’s reputation as an artist gained significant momentum. She was recognized for her “paintings of New York skyscrapers—an essentially American image of modernity—as well as flowers” (O’Keeffe). Since Stieglitz was initially interested in modernity and abstraction, one may correlate his interest in the style and promotion of O’Keeffe with her developing use of the style as well.

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May 26, 1918, envelope, Letters from Stieglitz to O'Keeffe, Alfred Stieglitz / Georgia O'Keeffe Archive, Yale University Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

May 26, 1918, p. 7-8 (of 22), Letters from Stieglitz to O'Keeffe, Alfred Stieglitz / Georgia O'Keeffe Archive, Yale University Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

In Stieglitz’s 1918 letter to O’Keeffe, he writes: “My love for you is so great — as wonderfully pure — It's not the physical self seeking your physical self — I don't know what it is — Madness I guess — Madness like 291 —”. Here, Stieglitz vividly expresses his love for O’Keeffe. He even compares his passion to the “madness” of his 291 studio. An intersection is made between their personal and professional art lives. This letter was written to O’Keeffe right before she arrived in New York, which was after she decided to move there (NPR). One can see on the envelop that O’Keeffe was in Texas at the time. According to the article, “Stieglitz And O'Keeffe: Their Love And Life In Letters,” they began “living together almost immediately” when she moved to New York in 1918, but they did not marry until 1924 (NPR).  

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The Flatiron, Alfred Stieglitz, 1903, printed 1920/39, gelatin silver print, 12 x 8.4 cm, The Art Institute of Chicago

In this photograph, Stieglitz captured the Flatiron Building after a snowstorm in 1903 (Chicago). He describes the building “as if it were moving toward me like the bow of a monster ocean steamer, a picture of the new America which was in the making” (Chicago). He emphasizes the modernity of the building and focuses on its straight, vertical nature. In O’Keeffe’s later work of the Shelton, she also highlights the building’s steep, perpendicular form. The similar subject matter of a newly erected building also reflects the idea of modernity. The comparable influences on their work toward the beginning of their relationship, especially before O’Keeffe goes to New Mexico in 1929, may result from their close relationship and, ultimately, Stieglitz’s beginning as a modernist artist before O’Keeffe’s artistic reputation develops.

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The Shelton with Sunspots, N.Y., Georgia O'Keeffe, 1926, oil on canvas, 48 1/2 x 30 1/4 in., Art Institute of Chicago

As quoted by the Art Institute of Chicago, O’Keeffe’s inspiration for The Shelton with Sunspots was from “the optical illusion of a bite out of one side of the tower made by the sun, with sunspots against the building and against the sky ” (The Shelton). The illusion resulted in an abstraction of orange circles and dark looming rectangular forms making up the sun spots and skyscrapers. 

O’Keeffe’s work was completed after Stieglitz’s photograph of the Flatiron, which also shows the building in a foreboding manner. Both of the works focus on rectangular and vertical composition, illustrating a shared influence in the forms of their surroundings.

In even more connection with the Shelton, the couple moved into the building in 1925 (The Shelton). 

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Letter from O'Keeffe to Stieglitz, May 7, 1929, Alfred Stieglitz / Georgia O'Keeffe archive, Yale University Beinecke Rare Book & Manuscript Library

In translation, this letter from O’Keeffe to Stieglitz reads: 

“Dearest Boy- This is Mabel’s paper that is on every table—everywhere—It is the first time I have written on it—I think you should see it— --It is such a beautiful still morning—every morning since I left you has been still and sunny—We haven’t seen a drop of rain—but a beautiful morning here means a sort of a white morning—I can’t say it any other way—and it seems so still—I wish you could see it”

O’Keeffe makes many trips to New Mexico beginning in 1929, which is when this letter is written (O’Keeffe). She highlights the beautiful nature of New Mexico and wishes Stieglitz could be there to see it. As the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum notes of her art work, “The stark landscape, distinct indigenous art, and unique regional style of adobe architecture inspired a new direction in O’Keeffe’s artwork” (O’Keeffe). From O’Keeffe’s description of the “still morning” and sunny, dry atmosphere in her correspondence, one can see how the “stark landscape” inspires her. While there is still focus on shape and form in her work, as can be seen later in Deer’s Skull with Pedernal, the unique environment influenced a “new direction in O’Keeffe’s artwork” (O’Keeffe).

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Georgia O'Keeffe - Hands and Horse Skull , Alfred Stieglitz, 1931, gelatin silver print, 7 5/8 x 9 1/2 in., The Museum of Modern Art

This photograph is taken by Stieglitz after O’Keeffe begins taking trips to New Mexico for her artwork. It is not indicated whether O’Keeffe brought the skull back with her to New York or Stieglitz went to New Mexico to visit her, although the latter appears more probable. However, the photograph becomes a culmination of their artworks with the use of abstraction and O’Keeffe’s interest in the “the stark landscape” of the southwest (O’Keeffe). 

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Evening Walk, Ghost Ranch (47 of 48), John Loengard, 1966, New Mexico, gelatin silver print on paper, 10 x 14 15/16 in., National Portrait Gallery, Smithsonian Institution

Stieglitz died in 1946 and O’Keeffe permanently moved to New Mexico in 1949 (O’Keeffe). She spent much time at the Ghost Ranch, where this photograph was taken in 1966 (Ghost Ranch). In the photo, viewers can see an older O’Keeffe looking out to the desert landscape, which influenced her for so many years and caused physical separation between her and Stieglitz. Even though the two were apart in the latter part of their marriage, O’Keeffe was able to take a new direction in her work. She moved away from modernity and toward the environment surrounding her in New Mexico (while keeping attention to shape, form and flat swaths of color as well). 

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Deer's Skull with Pedernal, Georgia O'Keeffe, 1936, 36 x 30 1/8 in., oil on canvas, Museum of Fine Arts Boston

As enlightened by the Museum of Fine Arts Boston regarding O’Keeffe’s painting style and oeuvre in New Mexico, “By juxtaposing them in unexpected ways, she created compositions that are utterly realistic and at the same time surreal, uncanny or abstract” (MFAB). In the Deer’s Skull with Pedernal, O’Keeffe creates this juxtaposition by depicting a recognizable skull in a flat expanse of sky, painting a realistic yet surreal scene. 

O’Keeffe initiates her art career in abstraction and focuses on form in her work, which as previously noted, likely results from the association and support of her husband, Alfred Stieglitz, a noted modernist photographer. Although their relationship was filled with love, and O’Keeffe’s move to New Mexico caused them to be apart, O’Keeffe’s move to New Mexico allowed her work to develop in its own right. It permitted her to become one of the greatest American modernist painters.