Georgia O'Keeffe's Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 sold for $44.4 million at auction in 2014, setting a record for an artwork by a woman at that time. Sotheby's sold the painting in New York.
O'Keeffe painted the large white flower in 1932. Its monumental scale turns a single trumpet-shaped blossom into an immersive subject, a characteristic feature of her flower paintings. The work had been owned by philanthropist Alice Walton before the sale.
The title identifies both the plant and the flower's appearance. Jimson weed is also known as Datura, a plant associated with the American Southwest. O'Keeffe's repeated enlargement of flowers is sometimes interpreted too narrowly as symbolic or anatomical imagery; she consistently emphasized close observation and visual experience.
The 2014 result surpassed the previous auction record for a female artist. Later sales by other women artists changed the broader market rankings, so the record should be understood as a historical 2014 milestone.