In 1940, O’Keeffe purchased a house at Ghost Ranch in the Chama River valley of New Mexico. She spent her summers and falls at Ghost Ranch, where she painted the breathtaking views, including these immense red, pink, and yellow striated cliffs that rose up seven hundred feet behind her house. Dotted with green shrubs, the landscape faithfully reproduces the vibrant colors of the American Southwest. The immensity of these geologic outcroppings are emphasized by the tiny patch of blue sky at the top left. Awed by these colorful cliffs, O’Keeffe painted them seven times.
This image cannot be enlarged, viewed at full screen, or downloaded.
Artwork Details
Use your arrow keys to navigate the tabs below, and your tab key to choose an item
Title:Red and Yellow Cliffs
Artist:Georgia O'Keeffe (American, Sun Prairie, Wisconsin 1887–1986 Santa Fe, New Mexico)
Date:1940
Medium:Oil on canvas
Dimensions:24 × 36 in. (61 × 91.4 cm)
Classification:Paintings
Credit Line:Alfred Stieglitz Collection, Bequest of Georgia O'Keeffe, 1986
Object Number:1987.377.4
Inscription: Signed, dated, and inscribed (verso, on cardboard backing): Georgia O' Keeffe / Summer 1940 / Red and Yellow Cliffs / Ghost Ranch / [six-pointed star]
the artist (1940–d. 1986; her bequest as part of the Alfred Stieglitz Collection to MMA)
New York. An American Place. "Exhibition of Georgia O'Keeffe at An American Place," January 27–March 11, 1941, no catalogue (checklist no. 11; as "Cliffs, Ghost Ranch").
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Georgia O'Keeffe: 1887–1986," November 19, 1988–February 5, 1989, not in catalogue (unnumbered checklist addenda).
Los Angeles County Museum of Art. "Georgia O'Keeffe: 1887–1986," March 30–June 18, 1989, not in catalogue.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "American Landscape Painting," April 4–August 13, 1989, no catalogue.
Tulsa, Okla. Philbrook Museum of Art. "The Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," April 14–June 9, 1991, no. 4.
Miami. Center for the Fine Arts. "The Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 29–August 24, 1991, no. 4.
Omaha. Joslyn Art Museum. "The Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 14–November 10, 1991, no. 4.
Tampa Museum of Art. "The Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," December 14, 1991–February 8, 1992, no. 4.
Greenville, S. C. Greenville County Museum of Art. "The Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," March 17–May 10, 1992, no. 4.
Madison, Wisc. Madison Art Center. "The Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," June 6–August 2, 1992, no. 4.
Grand Rapids, Mich. Grand Rapids Art Museum. "The Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art," September 11–November 8, 1992, no. 4.
New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Stieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe," October 13, 2011–January 2, 2012, no. 192.
Bank Austria Kunstforum Wien. "Georgia O'Keeffe," December 7, 2016–March 26, 2017, unnumbered cat.
Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto. "Georgia O'Keeffe," April 22–July 30, 2017, unnumbered cat.
Georgia O'Keeffe. Georgia O'Keeffe. New York, 1976, pl. 94.
Lisa M. Messinger in "Twentieth Century Art." Recent Acquisitions: A Selection, 1987–1988. New York, 1988, pp. 60–61, ill. (color).
Lisa Mintz Messinger. Georgia O'Keeffe. New York, 1988, pp. 80, 82–83, fig. 60.
Lisa M. Messinger inThe Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., American Federation of Arts. New York, 1991, pp. 27–29, no. 4, ill. (color).
Lowery Stokes Sims inThe Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., American Federation of Arts. New York, 1991, p. 18.
Robert Rosenblum inThe Landscape in Twentieth-Century American Art: Selections from The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Exh. cat., American Federation of Arts. New York, 1991, p. 10.
John Brandenburg. "Art Review: Philbrook Show Features 60 Landscape Paintings." Daily Oklahoman (May 29, 1991), p. 13.
Eliot Nusbaum. "Joslyn Hosts a Vivid Landscape Show." Des Moines Sunday Register (September 22, 1991), p. 7F.
Mary Ann Marger. "An Artistic Tribute to America." Tampa Bay Times (January 17, 1992), p. 32.
Maria Costantino. Georgia O'Keeffe. New York, 1994, pp. 132–33, ill.
Barbara Buhler Lynes. Georgia O'Keeffe: Catalogue Raisonné. New Haven, Conn., 1999, vol. 1, pp. 630–31, no. 997, ill.
Lisa Mintz Messinger. Georgia O'Keeffe. London, 2001, pp. 142–43, fig. 92.
Barbara Buhler Lynes with Russell Bowman. O'Keeffe's O'Keeffes: The Artist's Collection. Exh. cat., Milwaukee Art Museum. New York, 2001, p. 170 (app. 3: "Works Named as Bequests in O'Keeffe's 1979 Will").
Lisa Mintz Messinger inStieglitz and His Artists: Matisse to O'Keeffe. The Alfred Stieglitz Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Ed. Lisa Mintz Messinger. Exh. cat., The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York, 2011, pp. 14, 205, 282, no. 192, ill. (color).
"My Country." Apollo 184 (October 2016), p. 119, fig. 3 (color).
Georgia O'Keeffe (American, Sun Prairie, Wisconsin 1887–1986 Santa Fe, New Mexico)
1926
Resources for Research
The Met's Libraries and Research Centers provide unparalleled resources for research and welcome an international community of students and scholars.
The Met Collection API is where all makers, creators, researchers, and dreamers can connect to the most up-to-date data and public domain images for The Met collection. Open Access data and public domain images are available for unrestricted commercial and noncommercial use without permission or fee.
Feedback
We continue to research and examine historical and cultural context for objects in The Met collection. If you have comments or questions about this object record, please complete and submit this form. The Museum looks forward to receiving your comments.
The Met's engagement with art from 1890 to today includes the acquisition and exhibition of works in a range of media, spanning movements in modernism to contemporary practices from across the globe.
