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Georgia O'Keeffe Museum: Access O'Keeffe
Georgia O'Keeffe
White Shell with Red, ca. 1938
Courtesy of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Image: okeeffe_CR958_white-shell-with-red_871281.jpg
Georgia O'Keeffe
White Shell with Red, ca. 1938
Pastel on wood pulp laminate board, 21 1/2 x 27 1/2 inches
CR No. 958
Alfred Stieglitz Collection, bequest of Georgia O'Keeffe, 1987.250.2
Pastel on wood pulp laminate board, 21 1/2 x 27 1/2 inches
Alfred Stieglitz Collection, bequest of Georgia O'Keeffe, 1987.250.2
CR No. 958

A large, white spiral shell sits at the center of the composition. Behind the shell is a landscape featuring a deep red hill with pink and yellow strips of sky above.

CR No. 958

Title (1999 Catalogue Raisonné)

White Shell with Red

Source of title: Whitney Archive, Downtown Gallery Archive, Abiquiú Notebooks.

General Remarks

Whitney Archive indicates, "Exam. at Amer. Place, March 1946. ... No signature. White Shell with background of red hills. Title given by Rosalind Irvine. Note: O'Keeffe think done ab. 1938." Downtown Gallery Archive dates 1938. Whitney Archive, Abiquiú Notebooks date c. 1938. (Source: Lynes, 1999)

Lynes publication dates this as ca. 1938, Art Institute of Chicago dates it as 1938 (without the circa date.) (Source: Information provided for Access O'Keeffe from the Art Institute of Chicago, 2025)

Technique

Pastel

Materials

Pastel on wood pulp laminate board

Extended Medium Description

Pastel on very thick, beige, slightly textured wove paper, affixed to ground wood board
(Source: Paper Survey researched by Judith C. Walsh and published in Lynes, 1999.)

Bequeathed by the artist to the Art Institute of Chicago, 1987. (Source: Art Institute of Chicago, 2025)

Credits & Rights

© Art Institute of Chicago

Administrative Information

Version History

Core fields last updated 5/20/2026

Last verified by current collection Dec 10 2025

Source System ID

8913

Other IDs

958, Catalogue Raisonné