Georgia O'Keeffe—Hands and Horse Skull

1931

Alfred Stieglitz

Associated Names
Alfred Stieglitz

Artist, American, 1864 - 1946

This is a grayscale photograph of hands touching an animal skull. The skull is large, and the hands are spread out across it, one touching the teeth and jaw of the animal and the other near a nostril. The animal’s head is long, like that of a horse or cow. It has some fine lines running across it. The hands appear dark against the white skull, and they cast a dark shadow on the medium-toned surface in the background.

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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    gelatin silver print

  • Credit Line

    Alfred Stieglitz Collection

  • Dimensions

    sheet (trimmed to image): 19.3 × 24.2 cm (7 5/8 × 9 1/2 in.)
    mount: 55.9 x 45.8 cm (22 x 18 1/16 in.)

  • Accession Number

    1980.70.242

  • Stieglitz Estate Number

    OK 23C

    Part of Stieglitz Key Set Online Edition

    Learn more

  • Key Set Number

    1427

The image shows a man leaning his head on his hand, positioned with his face resting on his left hand. He has a mustache, thin-framed eyeglasses, and thick, greying hair that curls slightly at the edges. He is dressed in a formal jacket, a white shirt, and a black bow tie. The background is a soft, dark blur.

Alfred Stieglitz

Curious for more Alfred Stieglitz scholarship?

Discover over 1,000 artworks that the artist’s wife Georgia O’Keeffe termed his “Key Set” of prize photographs. Museum scholars have illuminated each work, his career, practices, and lifetime achievements.

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Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Georgia O'Keeffe; gift to NGA, 1980.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

1958

  • Photographs by Alfred Stieglitz, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, March 16–April 27, 1958

Bibliography

2002

  • Greenough, Sarah. Alfred Stieglitz: The Key Set: The Alfred Stieglitz Collection of Photographs. Washington, 2002: vol. 2, cat. 1427.

Inscriptions

by Alfred Stieglitz, on mount, upper center verso, in graphite: 23; lower left verso: NN Ex
by Doris Bry, on mount, lower left verso, in graphite: OK-23-C / OK 23C
by later hand, on mount, upper left verso, in graphite, in square: 1

Wikidata ID

Q64037428

Scholarly Remarks and Key Set Data

Remarks

O’Keeffe returned to Lake George from New Mexico in July 1931, after shipping home a barrel of bones (see Lynes 1144). In the fall of 1932 she began incorporating the bones into her paintings. O’Keeffe’s painting Horse’s Skull with Pink Rose (Lynes 775) depicts the skull in this photograph and Key Set numbers 1428 and 1429.

Stieglitz Collections

A corresponding print was given to the following institution(s) by Alfred Stieglitz during his lifetime, or was received or acquired from the estate:

The Art Institute of Chicago, 1949.757

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, 1997.61.37

Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, 1995.691

The Museum of Modern Art, New York, 332.1942 (inscribed: O’Keeffe’s Hands & Horse’s Skull 1930)

Other Collections

A print corresponding with this photograph can also be found in the following collection(s):

The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, 93.XM.25.58

Lifetime Exhibitions

A print from the same negative—perhaps a photograph from the Gallery’s collection—appeared in the following exhibition(s) during Alfred Stieglitz’s lifetime:

1944, Philadelphia (no. 301, as Life and Death—Hands and Skull, 1929)

Lifetime Publications

A reproduction of this work appeared in the following publication(s) during Alfred Stieglitz’s lifetime:

“Speaking of Pictures . . . These are by one of Photography’s Pioneers,” Life 14:14 (5 April 1943): 9 (ill., untitled)

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