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Georgia O'Keeffe Museum: Access O'Keeffe
Georgia O'Keeffe
No. 17 – Special, 1919
Courtesy of Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Photo: Tim Nighswander/IMAGING4ART
Image: okeeffe_CR280_no-17-special_786489.jpg
Georgia O'Keeffe
No. 17 – Special, 1919
Charcoal on paper, 19 3/4 x 12 3/4 inches
CR No. 280
Gift of The Burnett Foundation and The Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation
1997.5.15
Charcoal on paper, 19 3/4 x 12 3/4 inches
Gift of The Burnett Foundation and The Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation
1997.5.15
CR No. 280

Charcoal drawing of two distinct dark lines that run down the center of the paper. Peeping out of these lines are two small dark half spheres, as if emerging from behind curtains, located in the upper center of the painting. These are the darkest of the entire composition, touched with highlights that suggest a full roundness to them.

CR No. 280

Title (1999 Catalogue Raisonné)

No. 17 – Special

Source of title: backing inscription 1.

Alternate Title (1999 Catalogue Raisonné)

Special #17

Source of title: Downtown Gallery Archive.

Special No. 17

Source of title: Abiquiú Notebooks.

Selected Exhibition Titles

Special XVII
Inaugural Exhibition, 1997, Georgia O'Keeffe Museum (Santa Fe)

Special XVII
An Expanding Collection, 1998, Georgia O'Keeffe Museum (Santa Fe)

Special XVII
Georgia O'Keeffe: The Poetry of Things, 1999, Georgia O'Keeffe Museum (Santa Fe)

Special XVII
Georgia O'Keeffe: The Poetry of Things, 1999, The Phillips Collection (Washington, D.C.)

General Remarks

Not recorded Whitney Archive. Abiquiú Notebooks notes backing inscriptions1, 2 Pictured in 1923 New York (Anderson) Stieglitz installation photograph, see Appendix III, figure 22. O'Keeffe wrote: "No comments, please" (Some Memories of Drawings [1988], unpaginated). (Source: Lynes, 1999)

Inscriptions

Inscriptions: Backing:

  1. "No. 17 - 1919 - / Special" (graphite)
  2. OK {5star} (graphie) (Source: Lynes, 1999)
Technique

Drawing

Materials

Charcoal on paper

Extended Medium Description

Charcoal on moderately thick, cream, moderately textured laid paper
(Source: Paper Survey researched by Judith C. Walsh and published in Lynes, 1999.)

Estate of the artist, 1986
The Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation, 1993
The Burnett Foundation, 1996 (partial share)
Gift to Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, 1997
(Source: Georgia O'Keeffe Museum, 2026)

Credits & Rights

© Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

Administrative Information

Version History

Core fields last updated 5/20/2026

Source System ID

45

Other IDs

280, Catalogue Raisonné