What flower did Georgia O'Keeffe enlarge in her 1924 painting Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1?

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Georgia O'Keeffe enlarged a jimson weed flower in her 1924 painting Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1.

The painting presents a single white Datura flower at a monumental scale. O'Keeffe often magnified flowers so viewers had to look closely at their curves, folds, and internal structures rather than treating them as small decorative objects.

Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 became especially famous after selling at auction for $44.4 million in 2014. That price made it, at the time, the most expensive painting by a female artist sold at auction.

Jimson weed is also known as Datura, a plant containing toxic compounds. The painting should not be confused with O'Keeffe's Black Iris works, which depict a different flower and use darker, more concentrated forms.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Oct. 2026

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