Skip to main content
Georgia O'Keeffe Museum: Access O'Keeffe
Georgia O'Keeffe
No.12 Special, 1916
Image: okeeffe_CR117_no-12-special_713638.jpg
Georgia O'Keeffe
No.12 Special, 1916
Charcoal on paper, 24 x 18 7/8 inches
CR No. 117
Charcoal on paper, 24 x 18 7/8 inches
CR No. 117

A sweeping gray form that curls inwards on itself occupies the center of the plain white paper. The form sweeps upward from the bottom left of the composition, curling in on itself at the top.

CR No. 117

Title (1999 Catalogue Raisonné)

No.12 Special

Source of title: Abiquiú Notebooks indicates lost inscription on original backing, "Back: '1917 – No. 12 Special' {5star}."

Alternate Title (1999 Catalogue Raisonné)

Special #12

Source of title: Downtown Gallery Archive.

Special No.12

Source of title: Abiquiú Notebooks.

General Remarks

Not recorded Whitney Archive. Lost inscription, backing inscription, Downtown Gallery Archive, Abiquiú Notebooks, date 1917. Dated 1916 on basis of similarities to cat. nos. 118–21; completed in Virginia or Texas. Pictured in 1917 New York (291) Stieglitz installation photograph, see Appendix III, figure 7. Jerold J. Savory related the forms in this picture to the head stock or "spiral shapes on the violin that she [O'Keeffe] kept in her room," when she was teaching at Columbia College, Columbia, South Carolina (see "Georgia O'Keeffe at Columbia College: 1915–16," in Women Artists News [1995], pp. 33–38, 61). O'Keeffe wrote: "Maybe a kiss. . ." (Some Memories of Drawings [1988], unpaginated). (Source: Lynes, 1999)

Inscriptions

Verso: "#1" (unidentified hand, graphite). Backing: "Top / Drawing Nl. 12 1917" (Doris Bry, black ink) (Source: Lynes, 1999)

Technique

Drawing

Materials

Charcoal on paper

Extended Medium Description

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

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 8/26/2026

Source System ID

8299

Other IDs

117, Catalogue Raisonné