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Lot Essay
Sun Water Maine is a superb example of Georgia O'Keeffe's mastery of the pastel medium and an important early work by the artist. O'Keeffe first traveled to Maine in the summer of 1920, staying at an inn at York Beach owned by friends of her husband, Alfred Stieglitz's family. She was instantly drawn to the place, returning several times over the course of a decade. "For Georgia...the trip to Maine was a revelation. Standing at the edge of the Atlantic Ocean, she felt again the bliss of a wide flat horizon, the sense of boundlessness and solitude that she had valued in Texas." (R. Robinson, Georgia O'Keeffe: A Life, New York, 1989, p. 230) Sun Water Maine is a powerful composition that manifests O'Keeffe's profound connection to the sea that she encountered at York Beach and the freedom that she felt in Maine.
In Sun Water Maine O'Keeffe simplifies the forms of sea and sun, reducing both to a rhythmic pattern of lines and softly modulated color. She uses the velvety medium of pastel to create a rich surface that conveys the depth and movement of the water. "Pastel afforded O'Keeffe a medium for her most unabashedly beautiful works of art. Exploiting pastel's broad range in hue and value, she was able to combine the graceful tonal imagery she had developed in charcoal with the intense abstract color she had explored in watercolor. Unexpectedly, she also found that pastel could project a captivating surface and texture. In contrast to her brief campaigns of focused work in charcoal and watercolor, O'Keeffe, beginning in 1915, used pastel steadily throughout her career." (J.C. Walsh, "The Language of O'Keeffe's Materials: Charcoal, Watercolor, Pastel" in R.E. Fine, B.B. Lynes, et al., O'Keeffe on Paper, Washington, D.C., 2000, p. 68) In the present work, O'Keeffe adeptly manipulates the medium, varying the application and saturation of the pigments and hues and juxtaposing this rich surface with bare paper, heightening the effect of each and creating a complex and visually striking surface.
As with many of her great works, at first glance, Sun Water Maine appears to be an objective rendering of the scene, however, upon further study, the presentation is deceivingly subjective, as the image has been subtly manipulated to reveal the mysterious perfection of nature. Sun Water Maine is not merely a depiction of the sea, but rather, manifests "the yearning [O'Keeffe] felt for the qualities inherent in both the ocean and the plains--the long, low, unbroken line of the horizon, and the vast, liberating presence of the sky." (Georgia O'Keeffe: A Life, p. 230) O'Keeffe shared this profound connection to nature with Arthur Dove, whose work she admired since she first saw Based on Leaf Forms and Spaces (1911/12, location unknown) illustrated in Arthur Jerome Eddy's seminal 1914 book, Cubists and Post-Impressionism. For her, the work "stood out for its abstract organic shapes that coalesced into a seductive, undulating, rhythmic pattern." (as quoted in D.B. Balken, Dove/O'Keeffe: Circles of Influence, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 2009, p. 21) O'Keeffe was introduced to Dove by Stieglitz who showed both artists in his gallery, "291." Dove's commitment to the natural world and his spiritual connection to his surroundings were as strong as hers and they shared a mutual admiration for one another's work and a lifelong artistic dialogue. O'Keeffe often commented on Dove's paintings and hung them in her home, while Dove said about her, "This girl is doing naturally what many of us fellows are trying to do, and failing." (as quoted in Georgia O'Keeffe, p. 13) Indeed, Dove incorporates the "sun" imagery of the present watercolor in later works such as Silver Sun of 1929 (Art Institute of Chicago). O'Keeffe first employed this motif in her 1917 Evening Star series and her 1916 watercolor Sunrise (private collection), returning to this iconography time and again throughout her career and influencing Modernists such as Oscar Bluemner and John Marin to include similar renderings in their work.
During the 1920s, when O'Keeffe executed the present work many Modernists such as Charles Sheeler, and John Marin turned to the industrial sector for guidance and inspiration in subject matter. In contrast, in works such as Sun Water Maine, O'Keeffe embraced the natural world in a vision that was simultaneously strikingly modern and a continuation of the American landscape tradition -- a manifestation of the spiritual power of the sublime. "O'Keeffe's work, a counter-response to technology, was soft, voluptuous and intimate. Full of rapturous colors and yielding surfaces, it furnishes a sense of astonishing discovery...Though the work is explicitly feminine, it is convincingly and triumphantly powerful, a combination that had not before existed." (Georgia O'Keeffe: A Life, p. 278)
CAPTIONS
Arthur Dove (1880-1946), Silver Sun, 1929, oil and metallic paint on canvas, 21 5/8 x 59 5/8 in., Art Institute of Chicago. /e The Estate of Arthur G. Dove, courtesy Terry Dintenfass, Inc.
In Sun Water Maine O'Keeffe simplifies the forms of sea and sun, reducing both to a rhythmic pattern of lines and softly modulated color. She uses the velvety medium of pastel to create a rich surface that conveys the depth and movement of the water. "Pastel afforded O'Keeffe a medium for her most unabashedly beautiful works of art. Exploiting pastel's broad range in hue and value, she was able to combine the graceful tonal imagery she had developed in charcoal with the intense abstract color she had explored in watercolor. Unexpectedly, she also found that pastel could project a captivating surface and texture. In contrast to her brief campaigns of focused work in charcoal and watercolor, O'Keeffe, beginning in 1915, used pastel steadily throughout her career." (J.C. Walsh, "The Language of O'Keeffe's Materials: Charcoal, Watercolor, Pastel" in R.E. Fine, B.B. Lynes, et al., O'Keeffe on Paper, Washington, D.C., 2000, p. 68) In the present work, O'Keeffe adeptly manipulates the medium, varying the application and saturation of the pigments and hues and juxtaposing this rich surface with bare paper, heightening the effect of each and creating a complex and visually striking surface.
As with many of her great works, at first glance, Sun Water Maine appears to be an objective rendering of the scene, however, upon further study, the presentation is deceivingly subjective, as the image has been subtly manipulated to reveal the mysterious perfection of nature. Sun Water Maine is not merely a depiction of the sea, but rather, manifests "the yearning [O'Keeffe] felt for the qualities inherent in both the ocean and the plains--the long, low, unbroken line of the horizon, and the vast, liberating presence of the sky." (Georgia O'Keeffe: A Life, p. 230) O'Keeffe shared this profound connection to nature with Arthur Dove, whose work she admired since she first saw Based on Leaf Forms and Spaces (1911/12, location unknown) illustrated in Arthur Jerome Eddy's seminal 1914 book, Cubists and Post-Impressionism. For her, the work "stood out for its abstract organic shapes that coalesced into a seductive, undulating, rhythmic pattern." (as quoted in D.B. Balken, Dove/O'Keeffe: Circles of Influence, Williamstown, Massachusetts, 2009, p. 21) O'Keeffe was introduced to Dove by Stieglitz who showed both artists in his gallery, "291." Dove's commitment to the natural world and his spiritual connection to his surroundings were as strong as hers and they shared a mutual admiration for one another's work and a lifelong artistic dialogue. O'Keeffe often commented on Dove's paintings and hung them in her home, while Dove said about her, "This girl is doing naturally what many of us fellows are trying to do, and failing." (as quoted in Georgia O'Keeffe, p. 13) Indeed, Dove incorporates the "sun" imagery of the present watercolor in later works such as Silver Sun of 1929 (Art Institute of Chicago). O'Keeffe first employed this motif in her 1917 Evening Star series and her 1916 watercolor Sunrise (private collection), returning to this iconography time and again throughout her career and influencing Modernists such as Oscar Bluemner and John Marin to include similar renderings in their work.
During the 1920s, when O'Keeffe executed the present work many Modernists such as Charles Sheeler, and John Marin turned to the industrial sector for guidance and inspiration in subject matter. In contrast, in works such as Sun Water Maine, O'Keeffe embraced the natural world in a vision that was simultaneously strikingly modern and a continuation of the American landscape tradition -- a manifestation of the spiritual power of the sublime. "O'Keeffe's work, a counter-response to technology, was soft, voluptuous and intimate. Full of rapturous colors and yielding surfaces, it furnishes a sense of astonishing discovery...Though the work is explicitly feminine, it is convincingly and triumphantly powerful, a combination that had not before existed." (Georgia O'Keeffe: A Life, p. 278)
CAPTIONS
Arthur Dove (1880-1946), Silver Sun, 1929, oil and metallic paint on canvas, 21 5/8 x 59 5/8 in., Art Institute of Chicago. /e The Estate of Arthur G. Dove, courtesy Terry Dintenfass, Inc.