Georgia O'Keeffe at 291, 1917

Key Set Entry

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Remarks

Although Georgia O’Keeffe first visited 291 in 1908 to see the Rodin exhibition and subscribed to both Camera Work and 291, Stieglitz did not see any of her work until January 1916 when her friend Anita Pollitzer brought it to the gallery. Impressed that a woman could create such expressive and abstract work, Stieglitz wrote O’Keeffe and the two began an intense and ultimately intimate correspondence. They met in spring 1916 when O’Keeffe returned to New York to study at Columbia University Teachers College. In late May 1917 O’Keeffe traveled from Canyon, Texas, where she was teaching, to New York to see her third exhibition at 291, but arrived after it had closed (14 May). Stieglitz rehung the exhibition for her. She returned to Texas a few days later, explaining in a letter to Pollitzer on 20 June 1917, “I just had to go Anita—There wasn’t any way out of it—and I’m so glad I went” (YCAL).

“A few weeks after I returned to Texas, photographs of me came—two portraits of my face against one of my large watercolors and three photographs of my hands” (Georgia O’Keeffe in Georgia O’Keeffe: A Portrait by Alfred Stieglitz [1978], unpaginated).

Based on their correspondence, Stieglitz photographed O’Keeffe on 1 June, the day she left New York to return to Texas. The date of 4 June on Key Set numbers 458, 459, and 460 probably indicates the day he completed the prints.

Behind O’Keeffe is her watercolor Blue I, 1916 (Lynes 119), hung horizontally.

Inscription

by Alfred Stieglitz, on mount, upper left verso, in graphite: OKeeffe 1917 at "291" / June 1—

by Georgia O'Keeffe, on mount, lower left verso, in graphite: OK 25D

Provenance

Georgia O'Keeffe; gift to NGA, 1980.

Exhibition History

2002

Alfred Stieglitz: Known and Unknown, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, June 2–September 2, 2002; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, October 6, 2002–January 5, 2003

2016

Georgia O'Keeffe, Tate Modern, London, July 6–October 30, 2016; Bank Austria Kunstforum, Vienna, December 7, 2016–March 26, 2017; Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, April 22–July 30, 2017

Bibliography

2002

Greenough, Sarah. Alfred Stieglitz: The Key Set: The Alfred Stieglitz Collection of Photographs. Washington, 2002: vol. 1, cat. 457.

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