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Georgia O'Keeffe Museum: Access O'Keeffe
Georgia O'Keeffe
No. 32 – Special, 1915
Image: okeeffe_CR57_no-32-special_823905.jpg
Georgia O'Keeffe
No. 32 – Special, 1915
Pastel on paper, 14 1/2 x 20 inches
CR No. 57
Pastel on paper, 14 1/2 x 20 inches
CR No. 57

Thin orange, yellow, and red lines move from the top left to the bottom center of the composition. The lines ripple and curl in on each other like wisps of smoke. Framing these lines are softly shaded hints of blue, green, and purple.

CR No. 57

Title (1999 Catalogue Raisonné)

No. 32 – Special

Source of title: Abiquiú Notebooks indicates lost inscription on original backing, "By O'Keeffe: 'No. 32 – 1914 – Special."

Alternate Title (1999 Catalogue Raisonné)

Number 32 Special

Source of title: Downtown Gallery Archive.

Special No. 32

Source of title: Abiquiú Notebooks.

General Remarks

Not recorded Whitney Archive. Abiquiú Notebooks after 1977 indicates, "Sold by Halpert to Baum, Nov. 1961? . . .Bought back [by O'Keeffe] March 1973." Downtown Gallery Archive and Abiquiú Notebooks date 1914. Dated 1915 on basis of letters to Anita Pollitzer and private collector. O'Keeffe wrote: [in paragraph beginning with schematic drawing of work] "[this] is Political Science [Arthur Whittier Macmahon] and me –– dabbling our feet in the water –– It is about fifteen feet deep right under our feet –– is red from the red clay. . . ." (O'Keeffe to Anita Pollitzer, October 1915, in Lovingly Georgia [1990], p. 48); O'Keeffe wrote: "These abstractions were done after sitting on the edge of a river, and having a conversation with a friend about abstractions from nature. I went home and made two pastels to illustrate to him what I meant" (O'Keeffe to private collector, 1977, see cat. no. 58). Macmahon was a political science professor at Columbia University, who met O'Keeffe when he was teaching at the University of Virginia summer school in 1914, and he visited her in South Carolina in November 1915. (Source: Lynes, 1999)

Technique

Pastel

Materials

Pastel on paper

Extended Medium Description

Pastel on thick, black, moderately textured, wove paper, construction paper
(Source: Paper Survey researched by Judith C. Walsh and published in Lynes, 1999.)

(The Downtown Gallery, New York, NY); Private collection, New York, NY, 1960; (The Downtown Gallery, New York, NY); Private collection, New York, NY, 1969; Edith G. Halpert, New York, NY, 1969; Estate of Edith G. Halpert, 1970; Sotheby Parke Bernet Inc., New York, NY, sale no. 3484, lot no. 134, 15 March 1973; The artist, 1973; Estate of the artist, 1986; The Georgia O'Keeffe Foundation, Abiquiu, New Mexico, 1993 (Source: Lynes, 1999)

Credits & Rights

© Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

Administrative Information

Version History

Core fields last updated 5/20/2026

Source System ID

8257

Other IDs

57, Catalogue Raisonné