Which Georgia O'Keeffe painting shows a cow's skull painted red, white, and blue?

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Georgia O'Keeffe's painting showing a cow's skull painted red, white, and blue is Cow's Skull: Red, White, and Blue.

O'Keeffe painted the work in 1931, during the period when bones and skulls became important subjects in her art. She encountered animal bones in the New Mexico landscape and transformed them into carefully composed images rather than treating them simply as symbols of death.

The skull's colors echo the American flag, giving the painting a distinctly national visual identity. O'Keeffe often isolated natural objects against plain backgrounds, encouraging viewers to study their contours, surfaces, and monumental scale.

The title is sometimes confused with O'Keeffe's other bone paintings, including works featuring ram's heads, pelvises, and horse skulls. The red, white, and blue color combination identifies this particular cow-skull painting.

Source: Wikipedia · fact-checked Sept. 2026

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