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Georgia O'Keeffe Museum: Access O'Keeffe
Georgia O'Keeffe
Church Steeple, 1930
Courtesy of Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Photo: Tim Nighswander/IMAGING4ART
Image: okeeffe_CR706_church-steeple_786517.jpg
Georgia O'Keeffe
Church Steeple, 1930
Oil on canvas, 30 1/8 x 16 1/16 inches
CR No. 706
Gift of The Burnett Foundation
1997.6.17
Oil on canvas, 30 1/8 x 16 1/16 inches
Gift of The Burnett Foundation
1997.6.17
CR No. 706

Architectural painting of a white church steeple with black bell and white cross positioned on top of an adobe church.

CR No. 706

Title (1999 Catalogue Raisonné)

Church Steeple

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

Alternate Title (1999 Catalogue Raisonné)

Bell & Cross – Ranchos Church, New Mexico

Selected Exhibition Titles

Bell, Cross, Ranchos Church, New Mexico
An Expanding Collection, 1998, Georgia O'Keeffe Museum (Santa Fe)

General Remarks

Whitney Archive indicates, "Not listed in catalogue [1931 exhibition]....Sold to Mrs. Simmons (beds). Ptd. 1930. 'New Mexico Cross on Dark Steeple.'" Abiquiú Notebooks indicates not included in catalogue. This painting does not have a pitched roof beneath either of its bell towers. Stieglitz, however, who wrote "Ranchos Church: on the label he affixed to its backing, would not have known one New Mexico church from another, and because O'Keeffe had completed many paintings of this subject, he obviously thought of this as another example. My thanks to Peter Hassrick for calling my attention to this title/subject inconsistency. Titled Church Steeple – Cross in American Artist (June 1943). See cat. no. 1887. (Source: Lynes, 1999)

Inscriptions

Inscriptions: Stretcher: "#4" (unidentified hand, graphite) Verso: "Georgia O'Keeffe - / 1930 - " (white paint) Backing: "O'Keeffe Exhibition Jan. - 18 - March 7 / 1931 / Bell & Cross - Ranchos Church, New Mexico - 1930 /(oil) by Georgia O'Keeffe." (Alfred Stieglitz, Label: handwritten, "An American Place' / 509 Madison Ave —Room 1710 / (S.E. corner 53rd St) — New York") (Source: Lynes, 1999)

Technique

Oil Painting

Materials

Oil on canvas

(An American Place, New York, N.Y.)
Mrs. Zalmon Simmons, New York, N.Y., by 1933
Descended in family
Christie's, New York, N.Y., sale no. 6288, lot no. 309, 5 December 1986
Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, N.Mex., 1986
Private collection, Sun Valley, Idaho, 1988
(Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, N.Mex.)
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 4/22/2026

Source System ID

76

Other IDs

706, Catalogue Raisonné