What 1932 painting by Georgia O’Keeffe became one of her most famous flower works?

Georgia O’Keeffe’s 1932 painting Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 became one of her most famous flower works.

The painting presents a large white jimson weed flower against a pale background. O’Keeffe enlarged flowers so viewers had to confront their shapes, folds, and tonal changes at close range. Although critics often interpreted her flowers symbolically, she repeatedly emphasized that her purpose was to make people look carefully at forms they usually overlooked.

Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 became especially famous after it was sold at auction in 2014. The work brought $44.4 million, including fees, making it the highest price then paid at auction for a painting by a female artist. The record drew renewed attention to O’Keeffe’s importance in American modernism.

The title identifies both the plant and the work’s place in a numbered flower sequence. It should not be confused with Black Iris III or Red Canna, two other well-known O’Keeffe flower paintings.