Which Georgia O'Keeffe painting features a cow’s skull against the colors of the American flag?

Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue features a cow’s skull against the colors of the American flag.

O'Keeffe painted the work in 1931 after collecting and studying animal bones in New Mexico. The skull is presented frontally, with red and blue surrounding a pale central form. The composition turns a weathered natural object into a stark, monumental image.

The painting belongs to O'Keeffe’s long-running series of works based on bones, which she found in the desert and kept as studio subjects. She treated bones as beautiful objects rather than simply as symbols of death.

The title’s patriotic colors are explicit, but the painting is not a literal flag. It is often discussed alongside O'Keeffe’s other New Mexico works, including Ram's Head, White Hollyhock-Hills and Black Cross, New Mexico.