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Georgia O'Keeffe Museum: Access O'Keeffe
Georgia O'Keeffe
The Shell, 1934
Courtesy of National Gallery of Art.
Image: okeeffe_CR827_the-shell_857666.jpg
Georgia O'Keeffe
The Shell, 1934
Charcoal on paper, 18 5/8 x 24 1/2 inches
CR No. 827
Charcoal on paper, 18 5/8 x 24 1/2 inches
CR No. 827

A spiral shell sits at the center of the composition. The shell has a smooth, gray surface with a few ripples and a black center. Exposed white paper surrounds the shell on all sides.

CR No. 827

Title (1999 Catalogue Raisonné)

The Shell

Source of title: Downtown Gallery Archive, Abiquiú Notebooks.

Selected Exhibition Titles

Shell
Georgia O'Keeffe: The Poetry of Things, 1999, The Phillips Collection (Washington, D.C.)

General Remarks

Not recorded Whitney Archive. On verso is acid transfer of a lost skull drawing. Abiquiú Notebooks dates 1918. Abiquiú Notebooks indicates, "4/13/67 – O'K says not done in 1918. Probably same year as 'Red Hill and White Shell,' 1938, ptg." Dated 1934 on basis of Stieglitz–O'Keeffe correspondence. (Source: Lynes, 1999)

Inscriptions

Verso: see remarks (Source: Lynes, 1999)

Technique

Drawing

Materials

Charcoal on paper

Extended Medium Description

Charcoal on medium thick, cream, moderately textured laid paper; Watermark: MBM (FRANCE) Ingres d'Arches
(Source: Paper Survey researched by Judith C. Walsh and published in Lynes, 1999.)

(The Downtown Gallery, New York, NY); Dorothy Braude Edinburgh, Boston, 1955 (Source: Lynes, 1999)

Credits & Rights

© Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

Administrative Information

Version History

Core fields last updated 8/26/2026

Source System ID

8826

Other IDs

827, Catalogue Raisonné