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Lot Essay
Beyond the flowers that established her fame, Georgia O’Keeffe continuously sought inspiration elsewhere in the natural world, from the vibrant autumnal landscape of Upstate New York to the bleached bones and barren hillsides of the American Southwest. With each subject, she imbued the natural forms with a sense of personal intense fascination, as well as a devoted focus on color, to create elevated compositions teetering between realism and abstraction. This approach to her art first fully blossomed during summers and autumns in the early 1920s spent at Lake George in the Hudson River Valley with the renowned photographer Alfred Stieglitz, her dealer and future husband. The paintings from this period were the works that first established O’Keeffe as an icon within the New York City art world. Landscape—Lake George, N.Y. exemplifies how “Lake George…evoked the spirit of place that was essential to [O’Keeffe’s] modern approach to the natural world.” (E.B. Coe, Modern Nature: Georgia O’Keeffe and Lake George, p. 21)
In 1918, O’Keeffe first visited the Stieglitz family’s 36-acre home at Lake George, which was named Oaklawn. Through regular visits over the following decade, first at Oaklawn and later at ‘the Hill,’ the landscape and its environs provided great creative motivation. In fact, she often referred to the Lake George scenery as “perfect.” Following the family’s move to ‘the Hill’ in 1919, O’Keeffe focused on landscape painting, and “this can be attributed to the elevation of the Hill and the more expansive views it afforded; particularly from her bedroom…she beheld an unobstructed view of the lake and surrounding scenery.” (Modern Nature: Georgia O’Keeffe and Lake George, p. 38) As in the best of O’Keeffe’s landscapes from this important early period, Landscape—Lake George, N.Y. transforms the rolling mountains, waters and wooded landscape into a layered composition of colorful forms that reflects the artist’s fondness for her surroundings.
Known for its dramatic storms, Lake George’s ever-changing manner offered O’Keeffe endless artistic opportunity. Stieglitz himself recalled a storm that he and O’Keeffe encountered, writing: “the Sky was black & the Lake black…I thought it wonderful—It looked as if the day of judgement had come.” (as quoted in Modern Nature: Georgia O’Keeffe and Lake George, p. 37) The present work portrays one such storm—or perhaps one oncoming—dominated by the deep greys and blues of the ominous clouds overhead. The swirling forms and strong diagonals in the sky paired with the burnt orange trees bending in the wind heighten the drama, suggesting a strong sense of movement and sound that encourages viewers to imagine the gusts of wind and rustling of the trees.
Devoid of human presence, Landscape—Lake George, N.Y. emphasizes the unpredictability and uncontrollability of the natural world. Yet, with its stunning coloration and close attention to form, O’Keeffe portrays a familiarity with her environment that permeates these early Lake George works. Clearly awestruck by the hauntingly beautiful storm, O’Keeffe transcribes her sensory impressions into paint, resulting in a composition that evokes the visual and aural realms. O’Keeffe amplifies the beauty of the natural forms in the present work by infusing them with her Modern aesthetic to create a vibrant, captivating depiction of the landscape that enthralled her.
In 1918, O’Keeffe first visited the Stieglitz family’s 36-acre home at Lake George, which was named Oaklawn. Through regular visits over the following decade, first at Oaklawn and later at ‘the Hill,’ the landscape and its environs provided great creative motivation. In fact, she often referred to the Lake George scenery as “perfect.” Following the family’s move to ‘the Hill’ in 1919, O’Keeffe focused on landscape painting, and “this can be attributed to the elevation of the Hill and the more expansive views it afforded; particularly from her bedroom…she beheld an unobstructed view of the lake and surrounding scenery.” (Modern Nature: Georgia O’Keeffe and Lake George, p. 38) As in the best of O’Keeffe’s landscapes from this important early period, Landscape—Lake George, N.Y. transforms the rolling mountains, waters and wooded landscape into a layered composition of colorful forms that reflects the artist’s fondness for her surroundings.
Known for its dramatic storms, Lake George’s ever-changing manner offered O’Keeffe endless artistic opportunity. Stieglitz himself recalled a storm that he and O’Keeffe encountered, writing: “the Sky was black & the Lake black…I thought it wonderful—It looked as if the day of judgement had come.” (as quoted in Modern Nature: Georgia O’Keeffe and Lake George, p. 37) The present work portrays one such storm—or perhaps one oncoming—dominated by the deep greys and blues of the ominous clouds overhead. The swirling forms and strong diagonals in the sky paired with the burnt orange trees bending in the wind heighten the drama, suggesting a strong sense of movement and sound that encourages viewers to imagine the gusts of wind and rustling of the trees.
Devoid of human presence, Landscape—Lake George, N.Y. emphasizes the unpredictability and uncontrollability of the natural world. Yet, with its stunning coloration and close attention to form, O’Keeffe portrays a familiarity with her environment that permeates these early Lake George works. Clearly awestruck by the hauntingly beautiful storm, O’Keeffe transcribes her sensory impressions into paint, resulting in a composition that evokes the visual and aural realms. O’Keeffe amplifies the beauty of the natural forms in the present work by infusing them with her Modern aesthetic to create a vibrant, captivating depiction of the landscape that enthralled her.