During her first stay in Taos, New Mexico from April to August 1929, O'Keeffe was the guest of socialite Mabel Dodge Luhan. She felt alive in her new surroundings and immediately set to painting the flowers that lined the path outside her guesthouse studio.
[An American Place, New York, until 1934; sold to MMA]
New York. An American Place. "Georgia O'Keeffe: Recent Paintings, New Mexico, New York, Etc, Etc.," January 18–February 27, 1931, no catalogue (checklist no. 18; as "Black Flower and Blue Larkspur") [probably this picture; see Ref. Buhler Lynes 1999].
New York. An American Place. "Georgia O'Keeffe: 44 Selected Paintings (1915–1927)," January 29–March 17, 1934, possibly extended to March 27, 1934, no catalogue [possibly this picture].
New York. The Forum, RCA Building, Rockefeller Center. "First Municipal Art Exhibition: Paintings, Sculpture, Drawings, Prints by Living American Artists Identified with the New York Art World," February 28–March 31, 1934, no. 672 (as "Black Flower and Blue Iris").
New Haven. Pierson College, Yale University. "Exhibition of American Art," January 12–March 22, 1935.
Minneapolis Institute of Arts. "American Paintings Since Sargent, Lent by The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 4–31, 1940, brochure no. 30 (as "Black Flower and Blue Larkspur").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "National Art Week and the Museum: Paintings by Living Americans," November 25–December 1, 1940, no catalogue.
WPA Art Center, Jacksonville, Fla. "Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," March 1–31, 1941, no catalogue.
Montgomery, Ala. Montgomery Museum of Art. "Contemporary American Paintings from the Metropolitan Museum Collection," November 9–December 1, 1941, no catalogue.
New York. YMCA, West Side. September 25, 1942–February 1, 1943, no catalogue.
Utica, N.Y. Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute. "Picture of the Month," April 1944, no catalogue.
Mobile, Ala. Mobile Public Library. "Works by 14 American Painters," April 15–May 15, 1945, no catalogue.
Birmingham, Ala. Junior League Shop. "Works by 14 American Painters," May 18–June 21, 1945, no catalogue.
New York. Emily Shop. April 10–20, 1946 [on display in the store window for the MMA Diamond Jubilee Campaign fund].
New York. Columbia University Journalism Department. January 24–July 31, 1949, no catalogue.
Nashville, Tenn. Watkins Institute. "20 Contemporary American Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," October 7–31, 1949, no catalogue.
Columbia. Maxcy College, University of South Carolina. "20 Contemporary American Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," November 9–December 3, 1949, no catalogue.
Seattle Art Museum. "Contemporary American Painting and Sculpture," February 4–April 5, 1953, unnum. brochure (as "Black Flower and Blue Larkspur" 1924).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Columbia Bicentennial Exhibition," October 28, 1954–April 18, 1955, no catalogue.
Montclair, N. J. Montclair Art Museum. "The World of Flowers in Painting," April 2–23, 1961, no. 32 (as "Black Flower and Blue Larkspur").
East Hampton. Guild Hall. "Of Art and Nature," August 20–September 4, 1961, no. 21 (as "Black Flower and Blue Larkspur").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Three Centuries of American Painting," April 9–October 17, 1965, unnum. checklist (as "Black Flower and Blue Larkspur").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Paintings, Drawings and Watercolors from the Museum's Collections," October 1–December 7, 1969, no catalogue.
Indianapolis Museum of Art. "Treasures from the Metropolitan," October 25, 1970–January 3, 1971, no. 39 (as "Black Flower and Blue Larkspur").
San Juan. El Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. "Arte del Siglo Veinte: EE.UU. del Museo Metropolitano de Arte," April 19–May 31, 1974, no. 12.
New York. Kennedy Galleries. "The Hundredth Anniversary Exhibition of Paintings and Sculptures by 100 Artists Associated with the Art Students League of New York," March 6–29, 1975, no. 70 (as "Black Flower and Larkspur").
Yonkers. Hudson River Museum. "Women in America: The Second Hundred Years 1876–1976," September 14–November 16, 1975, not in brochure.
Southampton, N. Y. Parrish Art Museum. "Twentieth Century American Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 25–December 31, 1977, no. 7 (as "Black Flower and Blue Larkspur").
New York. Zabriskie Gallery. "Alfred Stieglitz and An American Place 1929–1946," May 2–June 3, 1978, no. 65 (as "Black Flower and Blue Larkspur").
Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels. "La Peinture Américaine au 20e Siècle de la Collection du Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 28–August 23, 1978, no. 7 (as "Fleur Noire et Pied d'Alouette Bleu").
Albany. New York State Senate. "Twelve Americans from the Metropolitan Museum of Art," May 5–June 20, 1980, unnumbered cat. (p. 21; as "Black Flower and Blue Larkspur").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Georgia O'Keeffe: 1887–1986," November 19, 1988–February 5, 1989, not in catalogue (unnumbered checklist addenda).
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "14 Americans," July 16, 1990–January 2, 1991, no catalogue.
"Metropolitan Buys 3 Works In City Art Show." New York Herald Tribune (March 26, 1934), p. 17, ill., as "Black Flower and Blue Iris".
"Obstreperous Art." Arts and Decoration XLI (May 1934), p. 36, ill., as "Black Flower and Blue Iris".
E[manuel]. M. Benson. "A New Yorker Looks His Museums in the Face." American Magazine of Art 27 (October 1934), p. 538.
William M. Ivins, Jr. et al. "Notes." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 29 (April 1934), p. 67.
Alan Burroughs. Limners and Likenesses: Three Centuries of American Painting. Cambridge, Mass., 1936, pp. 183, 212, fig. 162, as "Black Flower and Blue Larkspur".
"On the Local Horizons." New York Times (June 21, 1936), p. X7.
"FSCW to Sponsor Exhibit of Art at Jacksonville." Tallahassee Democrat (February 27, 1941), p. 10, calls it "Black Flower and Blue Larkspur".
"Picture of the Month." Munson-Williams-Proctor Institute Bulletin (April 1944), unpaginated, ill.
Charles L. Fontenay. "Dr. Dutch's Talk, Preview Mark Exhibit Opening." Nashville Tennessean (October 8, 1949), p. 5, calls it "Black Flower and Blue Larkspur".
"To Be Shown in Columbia." Times and Democrat (November 1, 1949), p. 6, calls it "Black Flower and Blue Larkspur".
Of Art and Nature. Exh. cat., East Hampton, N.Y. Guild Hall. East Hampton, N.Y., 1961, unpaginated, no. 21, ill. front and back covers.
Henry Geldzahler. American Painting in the Twentieth Century. New York, 1965, pp. 131–32, ill., as "Black Flower and Blue Larkspur".
Doris Reno. "Miami's Old 17th Century Friend Found Shining in a New Setting." Miami Herald (August 22, 1965), p. 21E, calls it "Black Flower and Blue Larkspur".
Nora B. Beeson. Guide to The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 1972, p. 279.
Henry Geldzahler. Arte del Siglo Veinte: EE.UU. del Museo Metropolitano de Arte/ Twentieth-Century Art: U.S.A. from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., El Instituto de Cultura Puertorriqueña. San Juan, 1974, pp. 35–36, no. 12, ill.
Georgia O'Keeffe. Georgia O'Keeffe. New York, 1976, text facing pl. 56, artist recalls creating this picture and a similar canvas (1930, private collection, Buhler Lynes 1999 no. 714) during the summer of 1929 in Taos, New Mexico.
Helen A. Harrison. Twentieth Century American Paintings from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., Parrish Art Museum. Southampton, N. Y., 1977, p. 16, no. 7, ill.
Helen A. Harrison inLa Peinture Américaine au 20e Siècle de la Collection du Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels. Brussels, 1978, unpaginated, no. 7, ill. and ill. front cover (color), reprints Ref. Harrison 1977.
Henry Geldzahler. Twelve Americans from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., New York State Senate, Albany. New York, 1980, pp. 20–21, ill.
William S. Lieberman inTwelve Americans from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., New York State Senate, Albany. New York, 1980, p. 3.
Lisa Mintz Messinger. "Georgia O'Keeffe." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 42 (Fall 1984), p. 34, fig. 35 (color).
Philippe de Montebello. "[Director's Note]." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 42 (Fall 1984), p. 2.
Elyse Topalian. "Modern Art in the Met." Apollo 124 (October 1986), p. 362, calls it "Black Hollyhock and Blue Larkspur".
Laurie Lisle. Portrait of an Artist: A Biography of Georgia O'Keeffe. Albuquerque, 1986, p. 215, calls it "Black Flower and Blue Larkspur".
Charles C. Eldredge inArt in New Mexico, 1900–1945: Path to Taos and Santa Fe. Exh. cat., National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D. C. New York, 1986, p. 165, fig. 190.
Erika Billeter. "Georgia O'Keeffe's Bilder." Du (May 1987), pp. 37–38, ill. (color).
Lisa Mintz Messinger. Georgia O'Keeffe. New York, 1988, pp. 58, 62, fig. 42 (color).
Michael Berry. Georgia O'Keeffe. New York, 1988, p. 76, as "Black Flower and Blue Larkspur".
"Picture the Past: Georgia O'Keeffe, Alfred Stieglitz and the Met." Column 2 (September/October 1988), unpaginated, as "Black Hollyhock and Blue Larkspur".
Roxana Robinson. Georgia O'Keeffe: A Life. New York, 1989, p. 403, calls it "Black Flower and Blue Iris".
Elizabeth Montgomery. Georgia O'Keeffe. New York, 1993, ill. p. 51 (color).
Lucy Belloli. "The Effects of Time: Georgia O'Keeffe's 'Black Hollyhock, Blue Larkspur'." Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 51 (Winter 1993–94), pp. 38–43, figs. 1–4, 6–7 (color and bw, overall and details, diagram of hermetically-sealed box containing the painting).
Lisa Mintz Messinger inThe Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. Ed. Peter H. Hassrick. New York, 1997, p. 38, calls it "Black Hollyhock with Blue Larkspur"; compares it to the private collection version of the same motif (Buhler Lynes 1999, no. 714); discusses the iconography of the private collection version (on p. 75) in the context of nineteenth-century American flower paintings.
Barbara Buhler Lynes. Georgia O'Keeffe: Catalogue Raisonné. New Haven, Conn., 1999, vol. 1, p. 430, no. 713, ill. (color); vol. 2, p. 1121, fig. 41 (checklist), p. 1122, fig. 45 (installation view, Exh. New York 1931), calls it "Black Flower and Blue Larkspur (Black Hollyhock and Blue Larkspur)" and dates it 1930.
Elsa Mezvinsky Smithgall in Elizabeth Hutton Turner. Georgia O'Keeffe: The Poetry of Things. Exh. cat., Phillips Collection. Washington, D. C., 1999, p. 112.
Lisa Mintz Messinger. Georgia O'Keeffe. London, 2001, p. 117, fig. 77 (color), calls it "Black Hollyhock with Blue Larkspur".
Barbara Buhler Lynes inGeorgia O'Keeffe in Williamsburg: A Re-Creation of the Artist's First Public Exhibition in the South. Ed. Bonnie G. Kelm and Ann C. Madonia. Exh. cat., Muscarelle Museum of Art, The College of William and Mary. Williamsburg, VA, 2001, pp. 42, 45 n. 8, fig. 15 (color), calls it "Black Flower and Blue Larkspur" and dates it 1930.
Hunter Drohojowska-Philp. Full Bloom: The Art and Life of Georgia O'Keeffe. New York, 2004, pp. 324, 353, calls it "Black Hollyhock Blue Larkspur" [no comma] on p. 324.
Susan Wright. Georgia O'Keeffe: An Eternal Spirit. (1st ed., 1996). [New York], 2006, p. 80, ill. (color).
Barbara Buhler Lynes. Georgia O'Keeffe Museum Collections. New York, 2007, p. 152.
Sarah Greenough, ed. My Faraway One: Selected Letters of Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz. Vol. 1, 1915–1933. New Haven, Conn., 2011, p. 546.
Georgia O'Keeffe (American, Sun Prairie, Wisconsin 1887–1986 Santa Fe, New Mexico)
1917
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