The flower in Georgia O’Keeffe’s Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 is jimson weed.
O’Keeffe painted the work in 1932, presenting a large white jimson weed flower against a dark background. The close-up view magnifies the plant’s trumpet-shaped bloom and turns a familiar natural subject into an imposing modernist image.
Jimson weed is a common name for Datura stramonium, a plant known for its white or pale flowers and spiny seed capsules. It is also poisonous, so the painting’s subject should not be confused with a harmless garden lily or an unrelated white flower.
The painting became especially famous because it sold for about $44.4 million at auction in 2014, setting a record for a work by a female artist at auction at that time. That sale is separate from O’Keeffe’s earlier record associated with other flower paintings.