Lawrence Tree

Look up, and you find yourself lying beneath a giant tree, gazing through its branches toward a sky scattered with stars. That unusual viewpoint is exactly what Georgia O'Keeffe wanted in this 1929 painting. The reddish-brown trunk seems to twist and reach in all directions at once, splitting into thin limbs that crawl across the deep blue night. It is a perspective most of us rarely take the time to enjoy, but O'Keeffe captured it as if she were resting flat on her back and looking straight up.

The tree was real. It stood outside the home of writer D.H. Lawrence in Taos, New Mexico, where O'Keeffe spent time during her many trips through the American Southwest. She often sat on a bench beneath this very pine in the evenings, which explains the dreamy, almost dizzy angle of the painting. O'Keeffe is best known for her bold flowers and desert landscapes, and here you can see her gift for turning an ordinary subject into something strange and memorable. The simple shapes and rich colors are typical of her style, which helped shape American modern art in the twentieth century.