Georgia O'KeeffeAmerican, 1887–1986Red Hills with Flowers
Can I see it?
Not on view at present
Where is “Red Hills with Flowers” now? Collection: Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago. Not on view at present. Checked September 29, 2026.
Chicago, United States
It belongs to the collection, but is not on display at present.
- Checked
- In this state since
- Source
- The museum
About the painting
Fascinated by contrasts in scale, Georgia O’Keeffe frequently juxtaposed enlarged still-life elements with distant landscapes, as seen in Red Hills with Flowers, an image of vibrant blossoms magnified against the dry, steep hills surrounding her home in New Mexico. She admired the striking colors of the land, later equating them with artist paints: “All the earth colors of the painter’s palette are out there in the many miles of badlands. The light Naples yellow through the ochers—orange and red and purple earth—even the soft earth greens.”
Art Institute of ChicagoCC BY 4.0
Details
- Accession number
- 1992.649
What it shows
In the catalog
Sources
- Art Institute of Chicago
- Image: Art Institute of Chicago — © the artist or rights holder
In the life of Georgia O'Keeffe
The whole life1929–1983 · Workplace
New Mexico
1937
Stieglitz gives up photography
When Stieglitz retired from photography in 1937 he had made more than 350 portraits of O’Keeffe and more than 200 nude photographs of her.
1938
Advertising commission from the Hawaiian Pineapple Company
The agency N. W. Ayer & Son asked her for two paintings for the Hawaiian Pineapple Company (now Dole) to use in advertising. The offer came when she was 51 and her career seemed to be stalling: critics found her New Mexico focus limited and called her desert images a kind of mass production.
8 February 1939
Nine weeks in Hawaii
On 8 February 1939 she arrived in Honolulu aboard the SS Lurline and spent nine weeks on Oahu, Maui, Kauai and the island of Hawaii. Maui was by far the most productive stop: there she was given complete freedom to explore and paint — flowers, landscapes and traditional Hawaiian fishhooks.
