B A U M A N R A R E B O O K S W O M E N S H I S T O R Y 2 0 2 4 Women's History Month 30 FINE 1971 TWO-PAGE TYPED LETTER SIGNED BY O’KEEFFE TO HER SISTER, TWICE SIGNED BY GEORGIA O’KEEFFE 30. O’KEEFFE, Georgia. Typed letter signed. Abiquiu, New Mexico, August 27, 1971. Original two leaves of onionskin carbons (each 8-1/2 by 11 inches) in typescript, signed, initialed on the rectos; three leaves of typescript in facsimile; box. $3500 Typed letter signed by renowned artist Georgia O’Keeffe to her sister, boldly signed by O’Keeffe on the second page, with her initials, “G O’K” on the first page of the two carbon leaves, writing her sister about “my paintings owned by you… and my paintings lent to you by me,” as well as her wishes for certain paintings designated for the National Gallery of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and other major museums, housed in a beautiful custom clamshell box. “Georgia O’Keeffe was a key figure in the American 20th century… as a strong and individual colorist and as the lyric poet of her beloved New Mexico landscape, she left her mark on the history of American art” (New York Times). This August 27, 1971 letter speaks to the artistic legacy of Georgia O’Keeffe, as well as her close relationship with her sister, Anita, wife of Robert R. Young. “Georgia remarked late in her own artistic career that Anita would have painted circles around her if she hadn’t been afraid to free her own imagination on paper” (Reilly, Georgia O’Keeffe, 321), and in March 1984 Georgia was visiting her sister in Florida when she suffered a coronary and was flown back to New Mexico, only two years before her death at age 98. The subject of this letter is, as she writes in part, “conversations between us regarding my paintings owned by you… and my paintings lent to you by me,” as well as her desire for select paintings “to go to the institutions designated” by her. At times, in earlier wills, “O’Keeffe had named family members as legatees… During the 1970s, however, the wills she had made directed more property to the public than to family, and in the 1979 will, no family members at all were named as heirs… The change in her property planning had little bearing on Georgia’s family relationships. These were still strong and affectionate” (Robinson, Georgia O’Keeffe, 542). Upon her own death in 1985, “Anita willed all ten of her Georgia O’Keeffe paintings to the Robert R. Young Foundation,” which had been established to honor her husband (Reilly, 323). In addition to her signature on page two, O’Keeffe signed page one, “G O’K.” Accompanying the carbons of O’Keeffe’s two-page letter are photocopies of Lists A, B, And C, dated June 2, 1971, detailing the paintings owned by and lent to her sister, including those titled, “Jimson Weed,” “Winter Cottonwoods East V,” “Calla Lilies on Red,” “Abstraction— White Rose III,” and “Red Hills and White Flower.” Next to each listed work is the corresponding insurance value, year, media, dimensions (in some cases), and the intended public institutions, including the National Gallery of Art, Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Neither carbon is signed or initialed by Anita. Minimal traces of tape to versos, tiny pinholes from staple removal to upper corners not affecting text or signatures. Signatures bold and dark. Fine condition.
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