To æbler

1918

Stieglitz leaves his family for O’Keeffe

Within a month Stieglitz took the first of many nude photographs of her at his family’s apartment while his wife was away; his wife came home and gave him an ultimatum, and he left at once and moved in with O’Keeffe. The divorce, delayed by his first wife and her family, took six years — until the wedding in December 1924.

from 1918

Meets the modernists of the Stieglitz circle

In New York she came to know the early American modernists of Stieglitz’s circle: the painters Charles Demuth, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley and John Marin, and the photographers Paul Strand and Edward Steichen. The photography of Strand and of Stieglitz himself inspired her work.

June 1918

Moves to New York at Stieglitz’s invitation

Stieglitz invited her to live and work in New York, promising a quiet studio and to underwrite a year of painting; to accept she resigned from teaching at West Texas State. He discouraged her use of watercolour, which was associated with amateur women artists.

from 1923

Becomes a fashionable, well-paid artist

With Stieglitz’s support her landscapes and still lifes — her flowers above all — began to be shown actively, and she became a fashionable and highly paid artist.

1924

A show beside Stieglitz’s photographs

Stieglitz arranged a show of O’Keeffe’s works alongside his own photographs at the Anderson Galleries and in the following years helped to organise other exhibitions of her work.

11 dicembre 1924

Married: Alfred Stieglitz