Description
Fascinated by contrasts in scale, Georgia O’Keeffe frequently juxtaposed enlarged still-life elements with distant landscapes, as seen in Red Hills with Flowers, an image of vibrant blossoms magnified against the dry, steep hills surrounding her home in New Mexico. She admired the striking colors of the land, later equating them with artist paints: “All the earth colors of the painter’s palette are out there in the many miles of badlands. The light Naples yellow through the ochers—orange and red and purple earth—even the soft earth greens.”
Provenance
Georgia O’Keeffe (1887–1986), New York and NM, then Abiquiú, NM, from 1949; by exchange to Hortense Henry Prosser (1912–1992; born Hortense Henry; also Mrs. John Prosser), Lake Forest, IL, 1963 [Lynes 1999, vol. 1, 578, cat. 926; vol. 2, 825, cat. 1314]; through the Hortense Prosser Trust, Lake Forest, IL, 1992; bequeathed to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1992.
Accession Number
118577
Medium
Oil on canvas
Dimensions
50.8 × 63.5 cm (20 × 25 in.)
Classification
painting
Credit Line
Bequest of Hortense Henry Prosser