Red and Yellow Cliffs by Georgia O'Keeffe in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, January 2011

Red and Yellow Cliffs

Georgia O'Keeffe
(American, Sun Prairie, Wisconsin 1887–1986 Santa Fe, New Mexico)

Date: 1940

Medium: Oil on canvas

Dimensions: 24 x 36 in. (61 x 91.4 cm)

Classification: Paintings

Credit Line: Alfred Stieglitz Collection, Bequest of Georgia O'Keeffe, 1986

Accession Number: 1987.377.4

Description:
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.

Text from: www.metmuseum.org/collection/the-collection-online/search/484833