Georgia O’Keeffe – Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 : UPDATE: IT MADE $44.4 MILLION.
One of the most iconic works by Georgia O’Keeffe ever to appear at auction will come up at Sotheby’s sale of American Art in New York on November 20. Jimson Weed/White Flower No. I is estimated to make $10-15 million. It is one of the most well-known examples of O’Keeffe’s celebrated flower paintings, which stand among the most recognizable images in both art history and popular culture. The painting is one of three works by the American artist that are on offer from the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico, which are being sold to benefit its Acquisitions Fund. Also on offer from the Museum’s collection is On the Old Santa Fe Road ($2-3 million) and Untitled (Skunk Cabbage) ($500,ooo-750,000).
Jimson Weed/White Flower No. 1 was owned originally by the artist’s sister Anita O’Keeffe Young, whose estate was sold at Sotheby’s in December 1987. It was subsequently included in two private collections before being donated to the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum by The Burnett Foundation in 1996. The work hung in the White House for 6 years at the request of First Lady Laura Bush, and has been featured in nearly every major retrospective on the artist, including those at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and the Whitney Museum of American Art.
UPDATE: IT MADE $44.4 MILLION, A NEW WORLD AUCTION RECORD FOR ANY FEMALE ARTIST.