Which Georgia O'Keeffe painting became famous for its close-up view of a cow skull?

Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue is Georgia O'Keeffe's famous close-up painting of a cow skull.

O'Keeffe painted Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue in 1931. The work presents a frontal cow skull against a vertically divided field of red, white, and blue, giving an instantly recognizable natural object an almost emblematic presence.

The skull came from the dry New Mexico landscape, where animal bones were readily visible and became recurring subjects in O'Keeffe's art. She did not treat them merely as symbols of death; their forms, weathering, and stark contrast against the sky interested her as visual structures.

The painting is often grouped with O'Keeffe's Southwestern works, but its composition also connects to her broader habit of isolating and enlarging ordinary forms. It is not the same painting as Ram's Head, White Hollyhock-Hills, which combines a ram's skull with a landscape and a white hollyhock.