Georgia O'Keeffe (American, 1887–1986). <em>Rib and Jawbone (recto) and Tulip (verso)</em>, 1935 (recto); ca. 1926 (verso). Oil on canvas, 9 x 24 in. (22.9 x 61.0 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Bequest of Georgia O'Keeffe, 87.136.5a-b. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 87.136.5a-b_recto_PS22.jpg)

Georgia O'Keeffe (American, 1887–1986). Rib and Jawbone (recto) and Tulip (verso), 1935 (recto); ca. 1926 (verso). Oil on canvas, 9 x 24 in. (22.9 x 61.0 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Bequest of Georgia O'Keeffe, 87.136.5a-b. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 87.136.5a-b_recto_PS22.jpg)

DOWNLOAD

Download our app and ask your own questions during your visit. Here are some that others have asked.

Why was O'Keeffe interested in bones?

Once she started spending time in New Mexico, O'Keeffe began walking the desert and collecting sun-bleached bones like the rib and jaw you see here.

A statement she wrote in 1939 included these lines: "I have wanted to paint the desert and I haven't known how. I always think that I can not stay with it long enough. So I brought home the bleached bones as my symbols of the desert. To me they are as beautiful as anything I know. . . .The bones seem to cut sharply to the center of something that is keenly alive on the desert."

Why was she interested in painting bones?

When O'Keeffe first moved to New Mexico, she was struck by how there were few flowers so many bones in the landscape. She began to collect them and took them home to use a subjects in her paintings. She said, "The bones do not symbolize death to me. They are shapes that I enjoy." She especially liked bones with holes that she could hold up and view the blue sky through.

I love how this piece gives you a close up of her subject in a real concrete way. I feel like I am in her studio with her.

Terrific observation! I agree that the close cropping of the image makes it feel accessible. As you may have noticed, close-ups and cropping were some of the methods O'Keeffe used to abstract recognizable forms.

The brushwork in this painting seems little bit different. Can you say anything about it?

I think the drier brushwork here reflects the objects themselves. She collected bones that had been bleached in the desert sun.

Thank you.

Of course! O'Keeffe found the bones in the desert to be beautiful and lively. The line work here reminds me of her more urban canvases, which reflected a more realist vein of the modernist style happening in NYC during that time.

Yes I can see that now! The brushwork doesn't seem as dry to my untrained eye as the other New Mexico bones which caused me to wonder.

Ah, I see, and agree!

I'm wondering if we know what type of bones these are--I know she painted cow skulls, so i'm wondering if these might be from the same group of bones she used for those works?

I can't be positive of the species of the bones, but all the bones she painted were ones that she found in the desert in New Mexico, so it has to be something that lived there. The Museum also has one of her paintings of a ram's skull.

Rib and Jawbone (recto) and Tulip (verso)

Georgia O'Keeffe

American Art

On View: American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, Counterparts

ARTIST Georgia O'Keeffe, American, 1887–1986

MEDIUM Oil on canvas

DATES 1935 (recto); ca. 1926 (verso)

DIMENSIONS 9 x 24 in. (22.9 x 61.0 cm) (show scale)

COLLECTIONS American Art

ACCESSION NUMBER 87.136.5a-b

CREDIT LINE Bequest of Georgia O'Keeffe

PROVENANCE October 29, 1987, bequeathed by the artist to the Brooklyn Museum.

Provenance FAQ

EXHIBITIONS

MUSEUM LOCATION This item is on view in American Art Galleries, 5th Floor, Counterparts

CAPTION Georgia O'Keeffe (American, 1887–1986). Rib and Jawbone (recto) and Tulip (verso), 1935 (recto); ca. 1926 (verso). Oil on canvas, 9 x 24 in. (22.9 x 61.0 cm). Brooklyn Museum, Bequest of Georgia O'Keeffe, 87.136.5a-b. © artist or artist's estate (Photo: Brooklyn Museum, 87.136.5a-b_recto_PS22.jpg)

IMAGE recto, 87.136.5a-b_recto_PS22.jpg. Brooklyn Museum photograph, 2024

"CUR" at the beginning of an image file name means that the image was created by a curatorial staff member. These study images may be digital point-and-shoot photographs, when we don\'t yet have high-quality studio photography, or they may be scans of older negatives, slides, or photographic prints, providing historical documentation of the object.

The Brooklyn Museum holds a non-exclusive license to reproduce images of this work of art from the rights holder named here. The Museum does not warrant that the use of this work will not infringe on the rights of third parties. It is your responsibility to determine and satisfy copyright or other use restrictions before copying, transmitting, or making other use of protected items beyond that allowed by "fair use," as such term is understood under the United States Copyright Act. For further information about copyright, we recommend resources at the United States Library of Congress, Cornell University, Copyright and Cultural Institutions: Guidelines for U.S. Libraries, Archives, and Museums, and Copyright Watch. For more information about the Museum's rights project, including how rights types are assigned, please see our blog posts on copyright. If you have any information regarding this work and rights to it, please contact copyright@brooklynmuseum.org. If you wish to contact the rights holder for this work, please email copyright@brooklynmuseum.org and we will assist if we can.

RECORD COMPLETENESS

Not every record you will find here is complete. More information is available for some works than for others, and some entries have been updated more recently. Records are frequently reviewed and revised, and we welcome any additional information you might have.