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
Georgia O’Keeffe frequently explored the Southwestern landscape in search of noteworthy views, and in the summer of 1940, she found an inspiring sight: “The places you can go on a horse here always astonish me . . . the most exciting was being on top of a ridge of red hills and seeing the blue flat topped mountains above them—it was very good.” She painted Red Hills with Flowers a month later, depicting bushes of small white flowers growing from the eroded gullies of the red badland, with the blue mesa barely visible to the right. O’Keeffe housed it in a thin strip frame made of a silver metal that she had partially plated with copper to complement the composition’s color scheme.
Art Institute of ChicagoCC BY 4.0
Details
- Accession number
- 2022.618
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
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.
