Yellow Hickory Leaves with Daisy, 1928 by Georgia O'Keeffe

Yellow Hickory Leaves with Daisy, 1928 by Georgia O'Keeffe
Yellow Hickory Leaves with Daisy, 1928 by Georgia O'Keeffe

In the 1920s, Georgia O'Keeffe began concentrating on representing enlarged still-life elements with carefully realistic handling. Although known more for her flower paintings, she frequently depicted leaves, inspired by the examples she found on her walks around Lake George in upstate New York, where she summered with her husband, Alfred Stieglitz, between 1918 and 1928.

In Yellow Hickory Leaves with Daisy, O'Keeffe painted the leaves around the small white daisy at lower center so that they seem to be emanating from the flower. She hoped that the strangely magnified subjects would inspire viewers to, as she said, "be surprised into taking time to look at" them in a new way.