Lake George

Calm water stretches across this canvas, mirroring the rolling hills above it in soft blues and greens. Georgia O'Keeffe painted this scene at Lake George in upstate New York, a place she visited often during summers spent at the family home of her husband, the photographer Alfred Stieglitz. The lake became one of her favorite subjects, and here she pares it down to its simplest shapes, letting the hills, the strip of land, and their watery reflection blend into something quiet and dreamlike.

O'Keeffe is best known for her giant flowers and desert landscapes, but works like this show her gift for finding the essence of a place. Rather than capturing every leaf and ripple, she smooths the scene into gentle curves and bands of color. The reflection at the bottom almost matches the hills above, creating a sense of stillness so complete that it can be hard to tell where the real world ends and its mirror image begins. It is a peaceful reminder that sometimes the most striking pictures come from looking closely at the ordinary.