November 15: Birthday of Georgia O’Keeffe (1887)
Prayer Idea
Pray for opportunities to see and appreciate beauty in the world.
History Note
Georgia O’Keeffe was born in 1887 near Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. She grew up on a farm in a family of seven children. In high school, O’Keeffe determined to pursue art. She studied at the Art Institute of Chicago and the Art Students League in New York.
After teaching art for several years, her artwork came to the attention of Alfred Stieglitz, an art dealer and photographer. He hosted an exhibition of her work in 1916. O’Keeffe and Stieglitz married in 1924.
O’Keeffe first visited New Mexico in 1929 and began spending summers there. The landscapes and cultures there greatly influenced her work. After her husband’s death, she moved to New Mexico in 1949.
As her eyesight began to fail in later life, she continued to create art with the help of assistants. At age 90, she expressed her desire: “I can see what I want to paint. The thing that makes you want to create is still there.”
Georgia O’Keeffe died in 1986 at age 98.
The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in located in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Photo by John Phelan / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY 3.0.
Learn More
See examples of O’Keeffe’s work in this video.
Find more resources at Homeschool History.
