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Oil on canvas, 36 x 30 1/8 inches
CR No. 879
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Gift of the William H. Lane Foundation
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A white deer's skull with large horns occupies the center of the canvas. The skull hangs on the twisting gray form of a dead tree. These objects stand against a blue sky. Pedernal, painted in shades of blue, green, and pink, stretches out along the bottom of the work.
CR No. 879
Title (1999 Catalogue Raisonné)
Deer's Skull with Pedernal
Source of title: Whitney Archive, Abiquiú Notebooks, 1937 New York (An American Place–O'Keeffe) exhibition checklist.
Alternate Title (1999 Catalogue Raisonné)
Deer's Skull and Pedernal
Source of title: Downtown Gallery Archive.
General Remarks
Whitney Archive indicates, "Exam. at Amer. Place, March 1946. On backing: Title & date as above. . . . Now owned by William H. Lane." Reproduced and titled Deer's Skull in Springfield Union (February 1937); Ram's Head with Pedernal in Painters and Personalities (1937); Deer's Skull with the Pedernal in Art Digest (March 1937). (Source: Lynes, 1999)
Inscriptions
Reverse, before relining: [star] Deer's Skull with pedernal 36 (Source: MFA Boston, 2025)
Technique
Oil Painting
Materials
Oil on canvas
1970–1971
Whitney Museum of American Art (as Georgia O'Keeffe)
Art Institute of Chicago (as Georgia O'Keeffe)
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA) (as Georgia O'Keeffe)
2024–2025
San Diego Museum of Art (as O'Keeffe and Moore)
Albuquerque Museum (as O'Keeffe and Moore)
Musee Des Beaux-Arts Montreal (as O'Keeffe and Moore)
1958–1959
Worcester Art Museum (as Lane Foundation American Painting Since The Armory Show)
Currier Museum of Art (as Lane Foundation American Painting Since The Armory Show)
Mount Holyoke College Art Museum (as Lane Foundation American Painting Since The Armory Show)
Consigned by the artist to Downtown Gallery, New York (stock no. 149); September 29, 1953, sold by Downtown Gallery to the William H. Lane Foundation, Leominster, MA [see note 1]; 1990, gift of the William H. Lane Foundation to the MFA. (Accession Date: September 18, 1990)
NOTES:
[1] Archives of American Art, Downtown Gallery Records, Series 4, Business Records: Sales Slips (2 of 2), 1953: Reel 5627 (Box 72), Frame 628; and Purchase Slips (2 of 2), 1953: Reel 5617, Frame 660.
(Source: MFA Boston, 2025)
© Georgia O'Keeffe Museum
Version History
Core fields last updated 3/30/2026
Last verified by current collection Oct 06 2025
Source System ID
8858
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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.
Abiquiú Notebooks indicates, "Keck: 1948" [not verified]. "I have a bill today from Mrs. Keck $100.oo for fixing the Skull with Pedernal that I sent you last year without glass because I can not do that here" (O'Keeffe to Edith Halpert, 18 September 1952, Archives of American Art).
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Georgia O'Keeffe. Deer's Skull with Pedernal, 1936. Access O’Keeffe, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, https://access-ok.okeeffemuseum.org/object/8858.