Georgia O'Keeffe
Horse's Skull with Pink Rose1931

On view:

Broad Contemporary Art Museum, floor 3

Artist or Maker: Georgia O'Keeffe
United States, Wisconsin, Sun Prairie, 1887-1986
Title: Horse's Skull with Pink Rose
Place Made: United States
Date Made: 1931
Medium: Oil on canvas
Dimensions: Canvas: 40 × 30 in. (101.6 × 76.2 cm); Frame (Framed): 40 1/4 x 30 1/4 x 1 1/4 in.
Credit Line: Gift of the Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation
Accession Number: AC1994.159.1
Classification: Paintings
Collecting Area: American Art
Curatorial Notes: After spending the summer of 1929 in New Mexico, Georgia O’Keeffe began to incorporate desert motifs into her earlier flower subjects. In this modern vanitas painting (Renaissance still life, where skulls symbolize the "vanity" of earthly pursuits), she juxtaposes a sun-bleached horse’s skull with a rose to evoke death and the fleeting nature of beauty and being.
Selected Bibliography: Feldman, Anita, editor. O'Keeffe and Moore. San Diego: The San Diego Museum of Art, 2023.
Norby, Patricia Marroquin. "The Abiqueños and the Artist: Rethinking O'Keeffe." American Historical Review 129 no.1 (2024): 114-132.