Monday, February 14, 2011

Valentine’s Day: The Two Loves of Georgia O’Keeffe

Georgia O'Keeffe had two loves in her life, her husband, modernist photographer Alfred Stieglitz, and the high desert and Rocky Mountains of Northern New Mexico. Sadly for O'Keeffe, Stieglitz did not care for the hot, dry climate in New Mexico, preferring the green canopied Adirondack Mountains in upstate New York, where he had a summer home at Lake George.


In the early years of their courtship and marriage, O'Keeffe spent summers in Lake George with Stieglitz, but a visit to D.H. Lawrence at his ranch near Taos, NM in 1930 would change that forever. Before meeting her husband, O'Keeffe spent several years teaching in the Texas panhandle, discovering a love for the desert and canyons of the area. 

During that time she wrote quite a bit about her walks and hikes in the region, later finding the experiences a real inspiration for her painting. Her visit to New Mexico rekindled that passion, and from the time of her visit with Lawrence, O'Keeffe spent most of her summers in Taos, and then Abiquiu, where she purchased a home she named Ghost Ranch. She spent her winters in New York City with her husband until his death in 1946, at which time she moved to New Mexico permanently.

More about the unique marriage of Georgia O'Keeffe and Alfred Stieglitz

More about Ghost Ranch: the home Georgia O'Keeffe

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