Boldly penned ALS signed “Georgia,” one onionskin page, 8.5 x 11, August 3, 1948. Letter to Bob regarding her financial situation, written from Abiquiu, New Mexico. In full: “I have your letter of July 27th. If you will leave me $10000.00 it will help my life. I will not be spending so much next year. If I ever get rid of my New York life my living here should be very simple. I have built a house which may be foolish. That is about finished now. My living is so simple it startles me that I spend so much. Thank you for giving the thought to my affairs.” In fine condition, with intersecting folds and some light corner and edge creasing and wrinkling.
Between 1929 and 1949, O'Keeffe spent part of nearly every year working in New Mexico, returning to New York in the fall. In the southwest she found inspiration in collecting and painting bones, as well as creating artwork inspired by the distinctive architectural and landscape forms of the area. It would be that artwork that enabled her to continue her successful “New York life”—one filled with numerous exhibitions and financial success and permit her to make monetary requests such as this. Yet this correspondence shows she was still contemplating exchanging that lifestyle for the simpler ways of the southwest.
At the time, she was living in her newly refinished Spanish Colonial home in Abiquiu about 16 miles south of her beloved Ghost Ranch homestead in northern New Mexico. This Abiquiu residence, which eventually became her permanent residence, was the setting for many of O'Keeffe’s later paintings as she literally stepped into her backyard for subject matter. As it turns out, the time and money invested was not “foolish” but an inspiration. Great association behind the artist and the natural majesty that motivated her. Pre-certified PSA/DNA and RRAuction COA.
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