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Georgia O'Keeffe Museum: Access O'Keeffe
Georgia O'Keeffe
Deer's Skull with Pedernal, 1936
Image: okeeffe_CR879_deers-skull-with-pedernal_714019.jpg
Georgia O'Keeffe
Deer's Skull with Pedernal, 1936
Oil on canvas, 36 x 30 1/8 inches
CR No. 879
Gift of the William H. Lane Foundation
Oil on canvas, 36 x 30 1/8 inches
Gift of the William H. Lane Foundation
CR No. 879

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

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)

Credits & Rights

© Georgia O'Keeffe Museum

Administrative Information

Version History

Core fields last updated 3/30/2026

Last verified by current collection Oct 06 2025

Source System ID

8858

Other IDs

879, 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

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).