Georgia O'Keeffe painted Hawaii after receiving a 1939 commission from the Hawaiian Pineapple Company.
The company invited O'Keeffe to travel to Hawaii and create images for an advertising campaign. She spent about nine weeks there in 1939, visiting several islands and painting plants, flowers, landscapes, and other local subjects.
The commission was connected with the company's desire for art that would help promote its pineapple business. O'Keeffe initially did not paint the pineapple itself, so the company asked her to make a pineapple image before she left. She eventually produced a painting of a pineapple for the campaign.
The Hawaiian works are a distinct episode in her career. They show that O'Keeffe could adapt her close observation of natural forms to a tropical environment, even though she is more commonly associated with New Mexico's dry landscapes. The trip also produced paintings of sugarcane, papaya, and other vegetation.