Georgia O'Keeffe spent summers at Ghost Ranch beginning in 1934.
Ghost Ranch is a retreat and former dude ranch near Abiquiú in northern New Mexico. O'Keeffe first visited the area in 1934 and returned regularly, finding subjects in its cliffs, mesas, desert plants, bones, and expansive skies.
The landscape became central to her mature work. She often worked outdoors and made paintings based on specific geological forms, including the nearby mountain Pedernal. Ghost Ranch also provided a contrast to her life in New York, where she had become part of the modern art world through Stieglitz's galleries.
O'Keeffe later acquired a house in the village of Abiquiú, but Ghost Ranch and Abiquiú were different places. That distinction matters because both locations appear frequently in accounts of her New Mexico career.