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Georgia O'Keeffe Museum: Access O'Keeffe
Georgia O'Keeffe
Canna Red and Orange, 1926
Image: okeeffe_CR563_canna-red-and-orange_823985.jpg
Georgia O'Keeffe
Canna Red and Orange, 1926
Oil on canvas, 20 x 16 inches
CR No. 563
1997.6.39
Oil on canvas, 20 x 16 inches
Collection:Private Collection
1997.6.39
CR No. 563

Vertical canvas of magnified view of the interior of a canna flower. Dominate colors of red and orange in the petals, that gently spiral from the center of red and yellow. At the very edge of the top are two hints of green.

CR No. 563

Title (1999 Catalogue Raisonné)

Canna Red and Orange

Source of title: backing inscription 1, Whitney Archive, Downtown Gallery Archive, Abiquiú Notebooks.

Alternate Title (1999 Catalogue Raisonné)

Canna – Red and Orange

Source of title: Downtown Gallery label.

General Remarks

Whitney Archive, Abiquiú Notebooks indicate, "Exam. at Amer. Pace, April 1946" [note of backing inscriptions]. Backing inscription dates 1922? Whitney Archive, Downtown Gallery Archive, Abiquiú Notebooks date c. 1922. Dated 1926 on basis of Stieglitz–O'Keeffe correspondence. (Source: Lynes, 1999)

Inscriptions

Inscriptions: Stretcher: inaccessible Verso: inaccessible Backing:

  1. "Canna Red and Orange --/ 22?" (graphite)
  2. OK O (Graphite) (Source: Lynes, 1999)
Technique

Oil Painting

Materials

Oil on canvas

(The Downtown Gallery, New York, N.Y.)
Private collection, Frederick, Va, 1960
Grace Hokin Gallery, Palm Beach, Fla., 1988
James Goodman Gallery, Inc., New York, N.Y., 1988
Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, N.Mex., 1988
Private collection, Sun Valley, Idaho, 1988
Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, N.Mex., 1988
Stéphane Janssen, Santa Fe, N.Mex., 1988
The Burnett Foundation, Fort Worth, Tex., 1996 (Source: Lynes, 1999)

Credits & Rights

© Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

Administrative Information

Version History

Core fields last updated 3/30/2026

Source System ID

67

Other IDs

563, Catalogue Raisonné

Conservation

Information is from the most recently submitted report, please contact the current owner to verify updated details.
TECHNICAL DESCRIPTION

Support: This work is applied to a very fine, plain-weave, unbleached linen canvas. This support has been recorded in three previously documented O'Keeffe paintings.

Ground: The ground is artist-primed with a proteinaceous (rabbit-skin glue, probably) sizing and at least two coats of lead carbonate-in-oil priming, also applied by the artist.

Design Layers: In transmitted light, paints are seen to be applied as a single, thin layer with the artist controlling paint consistency, translucency, and gloss to achieve a variety of effects. Canvas weave and texture are generally visible throughout the work. A number of horizontal brush strokes from the priming that are unrelated to the final composition are visible in raking light. There are occasional "holidays" or small, unpainted areas at the margins between forms. The edges of forms are generally executed in curvilinear brush strokes with prominently raised ridges. Graphite underdrawing can occasionally be seen on the primed surface in the unpainted holidays between painted forms.

Surface Coating: The surface is unvarnished.

Framing, Backing, and Hanging Hardware: The work was re-framed in 1996 and has been framed using a reproduction, Georgia O'Keeffe-George Of-designed gilded "clam shell" profile frame with gasketed, silica-gel buffered backing panel. The frame is glazed using Optium, tin-coated, non-glare, conductive acrylic.

CONDITION NARRATIVE

The work has a unified, overall appearance, and extant conditions generally require directed lighting. The work is complete and stable, overall. Original stretcher bar creases are visible generally along three edges and isolated inside faces. There are numerous pinpoint and slightly larger losses at the edges near the frame face.

The structure has been given a dry-strip lining across the tacking edges, with the original tacks apparently carefully replaced into their original holes. Replacement stretcher keys were also apparently added and secured with monel staples during the same campaign of stabilization.