Georgia O'Keeffe first painted a large-scale close-up flower in her 1924 work Petunia, No. 2.
The flower was a petunia, and the painting marked an important early example of the enlarged floral forms that became strongly associated with her career. O'Keeffe presented the flower so closely that its petals fill much of the picture, encouraging viewers to notice color, shape, and abstract structure rather than simply identify a plant.
She later made many flower paintings, including works featuring irises, poppies, and calla lilies. Their huge scale led some critics to offer symbolic or sensual interpretations, but O'Keeffe repeatedly emphasized that she wanted people to look carefully at flowers that were otherwise overlooked.
Petunias remained personally significant to her. She had grown purple petunias in Texas before moving to New York, and the flower became an early bridge between her observations of nature and her increasingly modern visual language.