Georgia O'Keeffe painted jimson weed in the work that sold for $44.4 million in 2014.
Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1, painted in 1932, became the most expensive artwork by a woman ever sold at auction when it fetched $44.4 million at Sotheby's in New York in 2014. The buyer was the Walmart heiress Alice Walton, who acquired it for the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art.
The painting presents a single large white jimson weed blossom against a pale background. O'Keeffe frequently enlarged flowers so that viewers had to look closely at forms they might otherwise overlook.
The auction record is often misreported as the price of the flower itself or as a record for all O'Keeffe paintings. It was an auction price for this specific 1932 work and set a record for a work by a female artist at that time.