| The Lawrence Tree | |
|---|---|
 The Lawrence Tree, 1929 | |
| Artist | Georgia O'Keeffe |
| Year | 1929 |
| Medium | Painting |
| Subject | Ponderosa pine |
| Location | Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut |
| Accession | 1981.23 |
| Website | Wadsworth Atheneum |
The Lawrence Tree is a painting by Georgia O'Keeffe in 1929 of a large ponderosa pine tree on the D. H. Lawrence Ranch in Taos County, New Mexico. [1] [2] The tree still survives (as of 2024) and may be visited at the Lawrence Ranch.
D. H. Lawrence and Frieda Lawrence lived in a cabin near the tree, under which the author sat on a weathered bench and wrote on a table. [1] [2]
The big pine tree in front of the house, standing still and unconcerned and alive...the overshadowing tree whose green top one never looks at... One goes out of the door and the tree-trunk is there, like a guardian angel. The tree-trunk, the long work table and the fence!
— D. H. Lawrence [1]
In 1929, O'Keeffe stayed with Mabel Dodge Luhan, who was a patroness who brought modernists to the Taos art colony. While there she visited the ranch and painted the tree. The perspective was captured by lying down on the bench and looking into the night sky through the branches of the tree. [1] [2] Because of this, the work can be hung in different ways. The Wadsworth Atheneum, who owns the painting, displays it with the treetop facing the bottom edge. They note that "when the Wadsworth Atheneum acquired this painting from the artist, she confirmed its ambiguous orientation. At one point it was installed with the trunk emerging from the lower edge. It is presently shown, in keeping with her earlier preference, as it is oriented here, allowing the viewer to experience the artist’s favored vantage point." [3]
Art historian Bonnie L. Grad has shown that O'Keeffe's painting is not simply a depiction of this monumental tree, but is an homage to Lawrence, whose writings were an important though generally overlooked source of inspiration for the artist (as explored in Grad's 1998 article, "Georgia O'Keeffe's Lawrencean Vision" in the Archives of American Art Journal). [4] She describes this painting as "a fitting and generous tribute to the author whose legacy she had become heir to." [5]
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The Taos art colony was an art colony founded in Taos, New Mexico, by artists attracted by the culture of the Taos Pueblo and northern New Mexico. The history of Hispanic craftsmanship in furniture, tin work, and other mediums also played a role in creating a multicultural tradition of art in the area.
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The Georgia O'Keeffe Museum is dedicated to the artistic legacy of Georgia O'Keeffe, her life, American modernism, and public engagement. It opened on July 17, 1997, eleven years after the artist's death. It comprises multiple sites in two locations: Santa Fe, New Mexico, and Abiquiu, New Mexico. In addition to the founding Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, the O'Keeffe includes: the Library and Archive within its research center at the historic A.M. Bergere house; the Education Annex for youth and public programming; Georgia O'Keeffe's historic Abiquiu Home and Studio; the O'Keeffe Welcome Center in Abiquiu; and Museum Stores in both Santa Fe and Abiquiu. Georgia O'Keeffe's additional home at the Ghost Ranch property is also part of the O'Keeffe Museum's assets, but is not open to the public.
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Maria Chabot (1913–2001), was an advocate for Native American arts, a rancher, and a friend of Georgia O'Keeffe. She led the restoration of her house in Abiquiú, New Mexico, and took the photograph of O'Keeffe entitled Women Who Rode Away, in which the artist was on the back of a motorcycle driven by Maurice Grosser. Their correspondence was published in the book Maria Chabot—Georgia O'Keeffe: Correspondence 1941-1949.
Summer Days is a 1936 oil painting by the American 20th-century artist Georgia O'Keeffe. It depicts a buck deer skull with large antlers juxtaposed with a vibrant assortment of wildflowers hovering below. The skull and flowers are suspended over a mountainous desert landscape occupying the lower part of the composition. Summer Days is among several landscape paintings featuring animal skulls and inspired by New Mexico desert O'Keeffe completed between 1934 and 1936.
Sky Above Clouds (1960–1977) is a series of eleven cloudscape paintings by the American modernist painter Georgia O'Keeffe, produced during her late period. The series of paintings is inspired by O'Keeffe's views from her airplane window during her frequent air travel in the 1950s and early 1960s when she flew around the world. The series begins in 1960 with Sky Above the Flat White Cloud II, the start of a minimalist cycle of six works, with O'Keeffe trying to replicate the view of a solid white cloud she saw while flying back to New Mexico. She would continue to work on this singular motif in Sky with Flat White Cloud, Clouds 5/ Yellow Horizon and Clouds, Sky with Moon, and Sky Above Clouds / Yellow Horizon and Clouds. A darker variation of this motif occurred in 1972, influenced by her battle with macular degeneration, resulting in The Beyond, her last, unassisted painting before losing her eyesight.