What hotel supplied Georgia O’Keeffe with views for her 1920s skyscraper paintings?

The Shelton Hotel supplied Georgia O’Keeffe with views for many of her 1920s skyscraper paintings.

O’Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz lived at the Shelton Hotel in Manhattan after she moved to New York in 1918. The hotel, a prominent residential skyscraper on Lexington Avenue, gave her direct views of the city’s architecture and changing light.

From this setting she developed paintings of towers, streets, and nighttime city forms. Radiator Building—Night, New York, painted in 1927, is among the best-known works associated with this period. Its dark sky, glowing windows, and sharply organized structure turn a recognizable building into a highly stylized modernist image.

The Shelton should not be confused with the Chelsea Hotel, another famous New York artists’ residence. The Chelsea became associated with many writers, musicians, and artists, but O’Keeffe’s celebrated hotel-based skyscraper paintings are linked to the Shelton in Manhattan.