Which Georgia O'Keeffe flower painting is also known as Oriental Poppies?

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Georgia O'Keeffe's flower painting is titled Oriental Poppies.

Oriental Poppies is an oil painting from 1927 that presents two large red poppy blossoms in close-up. O'Keeffe enlarged flowers so dramatically that their petals fill much of the picture surface, encouraging viewers to look at botanical forms as abstract shapes rather than as small decorative objects.

The painting belongs to the period when flowers became one of O'Keeffe's best-known subjects. She rejected the idea that her flower paintings were simply illustrations of femininity, emphasizing instead the visual intensity and formal structure of the natural forms.

Oriental Poppies can be confused with Red Canna, another famous O'Keeffe flower painting from the 1920s. The distinction is botanical: Oriental Poppies depicts poppies, while Red Canna depicts a canna flower. Their saturated red colors make the mix-up especially understandable.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Oct. 2026

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