Georgia O'Keeffe famously enlarged flowers in paintings such as Jimson Weed.
O'Keeffe began making enlarged flower paintings in the 1920s, presenting blossoms at a scale that encouraged viewers to look closely at their folds, centers, and colors. Her aim was not simply botanical illustration; she used the forms to explore shape, rhythm, and abstraction.
Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1, painted in 1932, is one of her best-known flower works. It shows a large white datura flower against a dark background. The painting later became famous for its record auction price, but its importance also comes from O'Keeffe's distinctive transformation of a familiar natural form.
A common misconception is that every flower painting had a symbolic or erotic meaning assigned by the artist. O'Keeffe repeatedly resisted fixed interpretations and emphasized that viewers often overlooked flowers because they saw them at ordinary size.