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Georgia O'Keeffe Museum: Access O'Keeffe
Georgia O'Keeffe
Nude Series V, 1917
Courtesy of Philadelphia Museum of Art.
Image: okeeffe_CR184_nude-series-v_857719.jpg
Georgia O'Keeffe
Nude Series V, 1917
Watercolor on wove paper, 11 15/16 x 8 7/8 inches
CR No. 184
Gift of C. K. Williams, II, 2019
Watercolor on wove paper, 11 15/16 x 8 7/8 inches
Gift of C. K. Williams, II, 2019
CR No. 184

Flowing, loosely rendered brushstrokes come together to produce the form of a nude person. The figure is seated, and their left side glows pale purple due to an unseen light source. The rest of their body has been rendered in shades of dark red, blue, and purple. The figure contrasts with the exposed white paper that constitutes the work's background.

CR No. 184

Title (1999 Catalogue Raisonné)

Nude Series V

Source of title: backing inscription 1.

Alternate Title (1999 Catalogue Raisonné)

Seated Nude

Source of title: Whitney Archive.

Nude No. V

Source of title: Downtown Gallery Archive, Abiquiú Notebooks.

General Remarks

Whitney Archive indicates, "Exam. at Whitney Mus. May 1946. . . .Probably painted 1915 or 1916." Whitney Archive dates 1915/1916. Downtown Gallery Archive, Abiquiú Notebooks date 1917. Pictured in 1923 New York (Anderson) Stieglitz installation photograph, see Appendix III, figure 21. See cat. no. 176. (Source: Lynes, 1999)

Though widely dated to 1917, PMA dates this work to 1918. The 1917 date is supported by a label on the frame in O'Keeffe's hand, and is published in the catalogue raisonné (Lynes, 1999, no. 184) and elsewhere. However, some scholarship suggests that Nude Series V was made in 1918, after O'Keeffe recovered from illness during the winter of 1917‑1918, and when letters between O'Keeffe, Paul Strand, and Alfred Stieglitz record O'Keeffe painting Leah Harris, a possible model for the Nude Series watercolors. Shoemaker, Innis H., Adventures in Modern Art: the Charles K. Williams II Collection. Philadelphia: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2009, 227‑8 includes the following references;see full entry for more detail: Roxana Robinson, Georgia O'Keeffe: A Life (New York: Harper & Rowe, 1989), p. 199 and p. 580, note 50 seems to have been the first to suggest that the watercolors depict Leah Harris and that they probably date from early 1918. The complicated story of the relationship of O'Keeffe, Harris, and Strand in the spring of 1918 is recounted in Benita Eisler, O''Keeffe and Stieglitz: An American Romance (New York: Penguin Books, 1991), pp. 167‑179. Strands' letter to Stieglitz is quoted on p. 177. Eisler suggests that the nudes were made in two campaigns, beginning in late 1917, but all evidence points to the fact that because of her ill health O'Keeffe was not working between November 1917 and February 1918. Labels inscribed in O'Keeffe' own hand on two of the watercolors, including Nude Series V, indicate a date of 1917. However, Lynes, Vol. 1, p. 19 notes that O'Keeffe often wrote the wrong date on the backs of her pictures. (Source: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2025)

Inscriptions

Backing:

  1. "Nude Series IV V {"IV crossed out} / 1917 / Watercolor on paper / 12 x 9 / Baker 24-709" (OKR, black ink)
  2. "NFS" (OKR, red ink) (Source: Lynes, 1999)
Technique

Watercolor

Materials

Watercolor on wove paper

Extended Medium Description

Watercolor on moderately thick, cream, smooth wove paper with a slightly fuzzy feel
(Source: Paper Survey researched by Judith C. Walsh and published in Lynes, 1999.)

Estate of the artist; private collection, 1986‑94; with Marissa G. Boyescu Arts, Miami, by 1994; sold to C. K. Williams, II, Philadelphia, October 29, 1994; gift to PMA, 2019.
(Source: Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2025)

Credits & Rights

© Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

Administrative Information

Version History

Core fields last updated 5/20/2026

Last verified by current collection Aug 06 2025

Source System ID

8334

Other IDs

184, Catalogue Raisonné