Georgia O’Keeffe began making her famous large-scale flower paintings in 1924.
Her flower paintings emerged prominently in the 1920s, with works such as Petunia, No. 2 and later close-up images of irises, poppies, and lilies. By enlarging a single flower so that it filled the picture, O’Keeffe made viewers examine ordinary natural forms as monumental subjects.
The year 1924 is especially associated with the beginning of this celebrated phase because she produced major flower paintings then, including works connected with her developing New York career. The paintings were not botanical illustrations; they were carefully composed modernist images built from simplified shapes, strong contours, and intense color.
Some critics interpreted the flowers through Freudian or sexual symbolism, but O’Keeffe repeatedly rejected those readings. She said people should look carefully at the flower itself, because its small scale in nature often prevented them from seeing it fully.