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Oil on canvas, 36 x 30 inches
CR No. 512
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Alfred Stieglitz Collection, Bequest of Georgia O'Keeffe, 1986
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A dynamic, abstract tree occupies the center of the composition, running from the bottom to the top of the canvas. The tree's gray branches and trunk seem to emit wisps of smoke, interacting with the abstracted gray, green, and brown forms in the background.
CR No. 512
Title (1999 Catalogue Raisonné)
Grey Tree, Lake George
Source of title: Whitney Archive, Downtown Gallery Archive, Abiquiú Notebooks.
Alternate Title (1999 Catalogue Raisonné)
Gray Tree
Maple Tree
General Remarks
Whitney Archive indicates, "Exam. at Amer. Place, March 1946. . . . No signature [notes inscriptions 3, 4]. Note: Miss O'Keeffe thinks in 1926 exhibition –– painted 1925." Abiquiú Notebooks indicates, "Note: pale green and grey." Reproduced and titled The Maple in Modern American Painters (1930); Maple Tree – November in The Chicago Evening Post, (March 1926); reproduced in Modern Art (1926). (Source: Lynes, 1999)
Inscriptions
Stretcher: inaccessible. Verso: inaccessible. Backing: 1. "The Orange Birch / 1925" (AS, graphite) 2. "White Birch Trees – Autumn / 1927 / by Georgia O'Keeffe" (WE, AAP6, black ink) 3. "White Birch Trees" (DB, graphite) 4. Société Anonyme Exhibition / Brooklyn Museum / . . . for after / . . . close of exhibition by / George F. Of" (AS, black crayon) 5. "Gray Tree – by Georgia O'Keeffe / (oil) Value . . ." / Also known as 'Maple Tree'" (AS, AAP1, black ink) 6. AAP9 7. "Stieglitz / [drawing of frame followed by illegible word] / glass surface" (GO, graphite) 8. "frame to be repaired" (AD, graphite) 9. "Box 43 / on 6" (DB, black ink) (Source: Lynes, 1999)
Initialed (verso, in center of five-pointed star, in graphite): OK (Source: The Met, 2025)
Technique
Oil Painting
Materials
Oil on canvas
1929–1930
1943
1946
1949–1952
1966
Amon Carter Museum of American Art
The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFA H)
1966
1970–1971
Whitney Museum of American Art
Art Institute of Chicago
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA)
1986–1987
2013–2014
Hyde Collection Art Museum
Georgia O'Keeffe Museum
Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco
2016–2017
Blanche C. Matthias. "Georgia O'Keeffe and the Intimate Gallery: Stieglitz Showing Seven Americans." Chicago Evening Post Magazine of the Art World (March 2, 1926), p. 1, as "Maple Tree—November".
Katherine S. Dreier and Constantin Aladjalov, ed. "Georgia O'Keeffe." Modern Art. New York, 1926, ill.
Samuel M. Kootz. Modern American Painters. New York, 1930, p. 43, ill., as "The Maple," collection Alfred Stieglitz.
Lisa Mintz Messinger. Georgia O'Keeffe. New York, 1988, pp. 19, 33, 35, 37–38, fig. 24.
Lisa M. Messinger in The Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., American Federation of Arts. New York, 1991, p. 27, fig. 3.
Maria Costantino. Georgia O'Keeffe. New York, 1994, p. 68, ill.
Katherine Hoffman. Georgia O'Keeffe: A Celebration of Music and Dance. New York, 1997, pp. 54, 108–9, 119, pl. 34.
Barbara Buhler Lynes. Georgia O'Keeffe: Catalogue Raisonné. New Haven, Conn., 1999, vol. 1, p. 288, no. 512, ill.
Lisa Mintz Messinger. Georgia O'Keeffe. London, 2001, pp. 64–65, fig. 39.
Barbara Buhler Lynes with Russell Bowman. O'Keeffe's O'Keeffes: The Artist's Collection. Exh. cat., Milwaukee Art Museum. New York, 2001, pp. 165 (app. 1), 167 (app. 1), 170 (app. 3), 173 (app. 4).
Lisa Mintz Messinger in Stieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe. The Alfred Stieglitz Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Lisa Mintz Messinger. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2011, pp. 14, 198, 279, no. 182, ill. (color).
Isabelle Duvernois in Stieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe. The Alfred Stieglitz Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Lisa Mintz Messinger. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2011, p. 193.
Bruce Robertson in Modern Nature: Georgia O'Keeffe and Lake George. Ed. Erin B. Coe. Exh. cat., The Hyde Collection, Glen Falls, N. Y. New York, 2013, pp. 84–85, 197, no. 42, ill. p. 161 (color).
The artist (1925–d. 1986; her bequest as part of the Alfred Stieglitz Collection to MMA) (Source: The Met, 2025)
© Metropolitan Museum of Art (The Met)
Version History
Core fields last updated 8/26/2026
Last verified by current collection
Source System ID
8595
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Conservation
Information is from the most recently submitted report, please contact the current owner to verify updated details.Published with corresponding artwork entry in Georgia O’Keeffe: Catalogue Raisonné (Lynes, 1999), this historical conservation information documents treatment decisions made during the artist’s lifetime. Lynes quotes information found on backing labels, and, when noted, from other sources.
"Co-Polymer iso and N-Butyl Methacrylate 2159" (Fine Arts Conservation Laboratories typed label).
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Georgia O'Keeffe. Grey Tree, Lake George, 1925. Access O’Keeffe, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, https://access-ok.okeeffemuseum.org/object/8595.