Which Georgia O'Keeffe painting depicts a black ram's skull against a white background?

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The Georgia O'Keeffe painting depicting a black ram's skull against a white background is Ram's Head, White Hollyhock-Hills. She painted it in 1935, combining a desert bone with white hollyhocks and distant New Mexico hills.

O'Keeffe frequently collected and painted animal bones found in the Southwest. She did not treat them only as symbols of death; their curves, openings, and weathered surfaces offered strong abstract shapes. In this work, the skull occupies the foreground while flowers and landscape create a layered setting behind it.

The painting belongs to O'Keeffe's New Mexico period and is often discussed alongside her cow-skull pictures. Those works can be confused because both use bones as central motifs, but the animal and title here are specific: a ram's head, white hollyhocks, and hills.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Oct. 2026

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