Georgia O’Keeffe’s 1932 auction record painting features a jimson weed flower.
Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 presents a large white jimson weed blossom against a dark background. O’Keeffe painted the work in 1932, using close-up scale to make a single flower fill much of the composition. The painting became especially famous after its sale at Sotheby’s in 2014.
The work sold for $44.4 million, establishing a record for the highest price paid at auction for a work by a female artist at that time. The title’s “White Flower No. 1” portion is important because O’Keeffe made several works involving jimson weed.
Poppies, irises, and calla lilies are also strongly associated with O’Keeffe, but they are not the flower named in this specific record-setting painting.