Georgia O’Keeffe moved to Chicago in 1905 to study at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
The school provided her with formal training after her Wisconsin childhood. She studied drawing and painting there before moving on to the Art Students League in New York, where she continued her education under William Merritt Chase and other instructors.
O’Keeffe’s Chicago studies formed part of a traditional academic path, but her later work moved away from strict imitation. She became increasingly interested in personal expression, simplified forms, and abstraction.
New York City is a common mix-up because O’Keeffe also studied there and later became closely connected with its galleries and skyscrapers. Chicago, however, was the city of her first major art-school training.