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Georgia O'Keeffe Museum: Access O'Keeffe
Georgia O'Keeffe
Cow's Skull on Red, 1931–1932
Image: okeeffe_CR799_cows-skull-on-red_794758.jpg
Georgia O'Keeffe
Cow's Skull on Red, 1931–1932
Oil on canvas, 35 3/4 x 40 inches
CR No. 799
Oil on canvas, 35 3/4 x 40 inches
Collection:Private Collection
CR No. 799

A bright white cow's skull with smooth white horns contrasts with a deep red background with a black stripe running through its center. Behind the horns, a tan, horizontal stripe spans the width of the background.

CR No. 799

Title (1999 Catalogue Raisonné)

Cow's Skull on Red

Source of title: Downtown Gallery Archive, Abiquiú Notebooks.

Alternate Title (1999 Catalogue Raisonné)

Cow's Head with Red

Source of title: Whitney Archive.

Steer's Head – Red Sky

Source of title: Whitney Archive.

Cow's Skull on Red/Steer's Head, Red Sky

Source of title: Whitney Archive.

General Remarks

Double entries Whitney Archive. Whitney Archive indicates, "Exam. at Amer. Place, March 1946. . . . No signature. . . . Infor. from Miss Bry (An Amer. Place), July 1949: on permanent loan to the National Gallery of Art, Washington from Georgia O'Keeffe as part of the Alfred Stieglitz Collection." Reproduced and titled Cow's Skull with Red in Art Digest (June 1946); Time (May 1946). (Source: Lynes, 1999)

Inscriptions

Stretcher: inaccessible. Verso: inaccessible. Backing: 1. "Cow's Head with Red / by Georgia O'Keeffe" (Andrew Droth, graphite) 2. Label: handwritten, "An American Place' / 509 Madison Ave —Room 1710 / (S.E. corner 53rd St) — New York"1 3. "Box 7" (Doris Bry, black ink) (Source: Lynes, 1999)

Technique

Oil Painting

Materials

Oil on canvas

(Gerald Peters Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico); Private collection, La Jolla, California, 1980; Christie's, New York, NY, sale no. 8068, lot no. 44, 30 November 1994 (Source: Lynes, 1999)

Credits & Rights

© Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

Administrative Information

Version History

Core fields last updated 3/30/2026

Source System ID

8806

Other IDs

799, Catalogue Raisonné