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Georgia O'Keeffe Museum: Access O'Keeffe
Georgia O'Keeffe
Ram's Head, White Hollyhock – Hills, 1935
Courtesy of Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Image: okeeffe_CR852_rams-head-white-hollyhock-hills_863578.jpg
Georgia O'Keeffe
Ram's Head, White Hollyhock – Hills, 1935
Oil on canvas, 30 x 36 inches
CR No. 852
Bequest of Edith and Milton Lowenthal
Oil on canvas, 30 x 36 inches
Bequest of Edith and Milton Lowenthal
CR No. 852

A ram's skull with long horns occupies the center of the canvas. To the left of the skull is a white and yellow hollyhock with delicate, soft-looking petals. The objects hover over a landscape of rolling brown hills dotted with green bushes or trees. Above the landscape is a darkly clouded, stormy daytime sky.

CR No. 852

Title (1999 Catalogue Raisonné)

Ram's Head, White Hollyhock – Hills

Source of title: Whitney Archive, 1936 New York (An American Place) exhibition checklist.

Alternate Title (1999 Catalogue Raisonné)

Ram's Head – Hollyhock & Little Hills

Source of title: Downtown Gallery Archive.

Ram's Head with White Hollyhock – Hills

Source of title: Downtown Gallery Archive.

Ram's Head – White Hollyhock – Little Hills, N.Mex.

Source of title: Abiquiú Notebooks.

Alternate Title

Ram's Head, White Hollyhock – Hills (Ram's Head and White Hollyhock, New Mexico)

Source of title: Brooklyn Museum.

General Remarks

Whitney Archive indicates: "Exam. at Amer. Place, March 1946. . . . No signature. . . . Photo from Doris Bry." O'Keeffe wrote: "I had looked out on the hills for weeks and painted them again and again . . . . I don't remember where I picked up the head –– or the hollyhock. Flowers were planted among the vegetables in the garden between the house and the hills and I probably picked the hollyhock one day as I walked past. My paintings sometimes grow by pieces from what is around" (Georgia O'Keeffe [1976], unpaginated, text accompanying entry 70). Titled Ram's Head & White Hollyhock, New Mexico by Stieglitz on photograph in private collection. Reproduced and titled Ram's Horn, White Hollyhock, Hills in New York Times (January 1936); Ram's Head White Hollyhock Hills New Mexico in The Springfield Sunday Union and Republican (January 1937); titled Ram's Head—Hollyhock New Mexico in American Artist (June 1943); Ram's Head and White Flower in Delphian Quarterly (April 1945). See cat. nos. 848, 881, 2026. (Source: Lynes, 1999)

Inscriptions

Backing: "Rams Head – Hollyhock / & Little Hills / 1935" (Andrew Droth, Label: handwritten, "An American Place' / 509 Madison Avenue / New York — N.Y. / Georgia O'Keeffe" [partial], black ink) (Source: Lynes, 1999)

Inscribed Verso on paper label: “Georgia O’Keeffe/ ‘An American Place’ /509 Madison Avenue-N.Y.” (Source: Brooklyn Museum of Art, 2025)

Technique

Oil Painting

Materials

Oil on canvas

Until at least 1948, with the artist; by May 14, 1958, acquired by Downtown Galleries, New York, NY; April 19, 1958, purchased from Downtown Galleries by Edith and Milton Lowenthal, of New York; 1992, bequeathed by Edith and Milton Lowenthal to the Brooklyn Museum. (Source: Brooklyn Museum of Art, 2025)

Credits & Rights

© Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

Administrative Information

Version History

Core fields last updated 3/30/2026

Last verified by current collection 2025

Source System ID

8840

Other IDs

852, Catalogue Raisonné

Conservation

Information is from the most recently submitted report, please contact the current owner to verify updated details.
REPORT NOTES

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.

CONDITION NARRATIVE

"Sprayed by Keck with butyl methacrylate polymer, June 1948." (Keck typed label); "Removed surface with petroleum benzine + re-sprayed with butyl methacrylate polymer May 1958. Keck" (Keck, black ink).