1 / 1

zoom is not available
image compare is not available
download is not available

The spiraling whorls of a nearly round, pearl-white shell fills this square painting. The inner edges of the shell’s whorls are shaded with pale spring green, especially to our right, and the innermost spiral is pale pink. The outer lip, that is, the open end of the shell, faces down to our right. The shell sits against a stone-gray background and casts a shadow to our left.

Georgia O'Keeffe

Shell No. I, 1928

East Building, Upper Level - Gallery 415B

Medium

oil on canvas

Dimensions

overall: 17.8 x 17.8 cm (7 x 7 in.)

framed: 20.3 x 20.3 x 3.3 cm (8 x 8 x 1 5/16 in.)

Credit Line

Alfred Stieglitz Collection, Bequest of Georgia O'Keeffe

Accession Number

1987.58.7

Artists / Makers

Georgia O'Keeffe (painter) American, 1887 - 1986

Image Use

This image is unavailable for download.
Read our full Open Access policy for images .
Contact us about image usage .

Inscription

on upper member of stretcher reverse: G. O Keeffe; on lower member of stretcher reverse: 1928; on right side of stretcher reverse: #21; by Alfred Stieglitz, except for "Coiled", across center reverse: 1928 / Georgia O'Keeffe (Coiled) / Shell No. 1 / Exhibition 1929; possibly by Alfred Stieglitz, across center reverse, within five-pointed star: OK; across center reverse: #21 / 1928.

Provenance

The artist; sold 1953 through (Downtown Gallery, New York) to private collection, New York; the artist [1887-1996], by unknown date;[1] her estate; bequest 1987 to NGA.

[1] Provenance from Barbara Buhler Lynes, Georgia O'Keeffe: Catalogue Raisonné, 2 vols., New Haven and London, 1999: 1:366.

Associated Names

O'Keeffe, Georgia

Exhibition History

1929: Georgia O'Keeffe: Paintings, 1928, The Intimate Gallery, New York, 1929, unnumbered.

Bibliography

1976: O’Keeffe, Georgia. Georgia O’Keeffe. New York, 1976: color pl. 79.

1988: Wilmerding, John. American Masterpieces from the National Gallery of Art. Rev. ed. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C., 1988: 176, repro.

1992: American Paintings: An Illustrated Catalogue. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1992: 250, repro.

1999: Lynes, Barbara Buhler. Georgia O'Keeffe: Catalogue Raisonné. 2 vols. New Haven and London, 1999: 1:366, no. 622, color repro.

2000: Kirsh, Andrea, and Rustin S. Levenson. Seeing Through Paintings: Physical Examination in Art Historical Studies. Materials and Meaning in the Fine Arts 1. New Haven, 2000: 264.