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Georgia O'Keeffe Museum: Access O'Keeffe
Georgia O'Keeffe
Shell No. 2, 1940
Courtesy of Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Photo: Tim Nighswander/IMAGING4ART
Image: okeeffe_CR624_shell-no-2_786516.jpg
Georgia O'Keeffe
Shell No. 2, 1940
Oil on board, 9 1/4 x 7 1/4 inches
CR No. 624
Gift of The Burnett Foundation
1997.6.37
Oil on board, 9 1/4 x 7 1/4 inches
Gift of The Burnett Foundation
1997.6.37
CR No. 624

Small white exterior of a clamshell with green lines of seaweed running over it, nestled in a bed of grey and feathery red kelp.

CR No. 624

Title (1999 Catalogue Raisonné)

Shell No. 2

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

Alternate Title (1999 Catalogue Raisonné)

Shell #2

Source of Title: Downtown Gallery label.

Shell No. II

Source of title: Abiquiú Notebooks.

Selected Exhibition Titles

Shell II
Inaugural Exhibition, 1997, Georgia O'Keeffe Museum (Santa Fe)

Shell II
An Expanding Collection, 1998, Georgia O'Keeffe Museum (Santa Fe)

General Remarks

Whitney Archive Indicates, "Exam. at Amer. Place, March 1946....No signature" [notes backing inscriptions 1, 2] See Gallery photograph" [not verified] Abiquiú Notebooks notes ☆ {star} of backing inscription 2. (Source: Lynes, 1999)

Inscriptions

Inscriptions: Verso:

  1. "G. O'Keeffe 1928" (white paint)
  2. "#5 / #19" (unidentified hand, graphite) Backing:
  3. "Shell No. 2" (graphite)
  4. OK {5star} (graphite)
  5. "1928" (Alfred Stieglitz, black crayon)
  6. "Georgia O'Keeffe / 1928" (Alfred Stieglitz graphite) (Source: Lynes, 1999)
Technique

Oil Painting

Materials

Oil on board

(The Downtown Gallery, New York, N.Y.)
Mrs. Rudolph Zinsser, Great Neck, N.Y., 1955
Descended in family
Sotheby's, New York, N.Y., sale no. 6782, lot no. 73, 29 November 1995
Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, N.Mex., 1995
The Burnett Foundation, Fort Worth, Tex., 1996
Gift to the 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 8/26/2026

Source System ID

72

Other IDs

624, Catalogue Raisonné

Conservation

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

Support: The support is a pressed wood fiber (Masonite®) untempered panel. The panel appears to be in good plane. There are numerous small "dents" throughout the board, and these were likely there before the artist applied the paint.

Ground or Support Preparation: The panel does not appear to have a ground layer, though the artist may have applied a size to the panel prior to painting.

Design Layers: The paints have been applied over occasionally visible charcoal/graphite line underdrawing in single layers, such that the surface of the board is often visible in discrete areas. The artist has prepared her higher value whites and lighter colors so that they have a slightly stiff, cream-like consistency, which is slightly thicker than background paints and holds brush texture as a compositional and textural effect. Darker values, by contrast, were prepared with more fluid, cream consistencies. O'Keeffe applies paint at the margins of forms using nearly continuous, curvilinear brush strokes with the brush positioned at a low angle to the board, resulting in a continuous, raised ridge of paint at the edge of each form. Surrounding brushwork is generally parallel to the linear directions defined by these edges, with no underlying or subsequent brushwork moving perpendicular to the linear form. Occasionally, adjacent forms do not overlap, and the artist has chosen to allow a "holiday" of unpainted board or, occasionally, a white color layer below the surface color.

 

Surface Coating: The painting has a thin, synthetic acrylic varnish. A blue-edged label on the backing reads: "Sprayed with a solution of n-butyl Isobutyl methacrylate copolymer resin as a final protective coating, Jan. 1955."

Framing, Backing, and Hanging Hardware: The painting is installed in a flat, L-profile frame of brass with a brushed nickel finish applied.

CONDITION NARRATIVE

All paints appear secure and stable. The painting appears to be in excellent condition overall. A 1996 treatment report from the Kimbell Art Museum notes that there were nicks and abrasions along the edges. The report also notes that a small nick in the top edge was filled with "a gesso made of chalk and rabbit-skin glue and inpainted with Schmincke pigments bound in Lascaux Retouching Medium (polyvinyl acetate AYAB). The small abrasions along the edge were consolidated with Bedacryl 122X (a thermoplastic acrylic resin) where necessary and retouched with the dry pigments and PVA." It is unknown if the current varnish is the n-butyl isobutyl resin applied in 1955, but the appearance has a very glossy sheen. The Kimbell report of 1996 makes no mention of any cleaning or varnish removal/application, so it does seem likely that the current varnish is the 1995 application.