Georgia O’Keeffe’s 1935 painting Ram’s Head, White Hollyhock-Hills features a ram’s skull.
The skull is shown prominently in the foreground, with a white hollyhock and the New Mexico landscape behind it. O’Keeffe frequently collected bones during walks in the Southwest and used them as subjects in paintings. She viewed these forms as powerful objects rather than merely as symbols of death.
The title’s wording helps distinguish the work from O’Keeffe’s many paintings of horse skulls. O’Keeffe also painted cow skulls and other bones, but this composition specifically combines a ram’s skull with a hollyhock and distant hills. The juxtaposition of bone, flower, sky, and desert terrain is characteristic of her New Mexico imagery.