The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 20, 2025

Oil painting with smooth, defined strokes depicting a tree at the center, swathes of grey fluff coating its branches. Behind it a peach-colored hill with a yellow peak is speckled with greenery and framed against a clear blue sky.

Dead Tree with Pink Hill

1945

Georgia O'Keeffe

(American, 1887–1986)
America
oil on canvas
Framed: 76.5 x 102 x 3 cm (30 1/8 x 40 3/16 x 1 3/16 in.); Unframed: 76.2 x 101.6 cm (30 x 40 in.)
Bequest of Georgia O'Keeffe 1987.138
© Georgia O'Keeffe Museum / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York
Location: On view at San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX, Oct 4, 2025 - Oct 4, 2026

Did You Know?

Under optimal environmental conditions, cottonwood trees can live up to 400 years.

Description

Cottonwood trees that spread throughout the New Mexico landscape provided subjects for several of Georgia O’Keeffe’s paintings, including this example. Although no longer living, the majestic cottonwood seen here is framed against a distant double-peaked land mass in near symmetry. Upon her death at age 98, the artist bequeathed this painting—along with four others—to the Cleveland Museum of Art, an early supporter of her work.
  • Estate of the artist, 1986
  • The New Yorker, February 16, 1946.
    O'Keeffe, Georgia. Georgia O'Keeffe: A Studio Book. New York: Viking Press, 1976. Reproduced: fig. 91
    "Art Museum Gets O'Keeffe Paintings." The Cleveland Plain Dealer, April 22, 1986. Mentioned: p. 5C
    Culllinan, Helen. "Georgia On Our Minds: O'Keeffe Legacy: 5 Glowing New Oils at Museum." The Cleveland Plain Dealer, September 5, 1987. Reproduced: p. 4B; Mentioned: p. ?
    Cleveland Museum of Art. Handbook of The Cleveland Museum of Art. Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1991. Reproduced: p. 152
    Chong, Alan. European and American Painting in The Cleveland Museum of Art: A Summary Catalogue, Cleveland: Cleveland Museum of Art, 1993. Reproduced: p. 171
    Benke, Britta. Georgia O'Keeffe 1887-1986: Blumen in der Wüste. Köln: Benedikt Taschen, 1994. Reproduced: p. 66
    Lynes, Barbara Buhler. Georgia O'Keeffe: Catalogue Raisonné, 2 vols. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1999. Reproduced: vol. 2 p. 706
    O'Keeffe, Georgia, John Loengard, and Lothar Schirmer. Georgia O'Keeffe/John Loengard: Paintings & Photographs: A Visit to Abiquiu and Ghost Ranch. München: Schirmer Mosel, 2006.
  • Art Bridges Loan Partnership. Mattatuck Museum, Waterbury, CT (August 16, 2024-September 21, 2025); San Antonio Museum of Art, San Antonio, TX (October 4, 2025-October 4, 2026) https://www.samuseum.org/artwork/exhibition/canvas-to-clay-georgia-okeeffe-maria-martinez-to-mata-ortiz-and-tonala/.
    Georgia O'Keeffe: Living Modern. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (November 21, 2018-March 3, 2019).
    The Georgia O'Keeffe Gift. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, OH (organizer) (September 4-November 15, 1987).
    Georgia O'Keeffe: Paintings. Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, NM (December 19, 1986-April 12, 1987).
    Georgia O'Keeffe: An Exhibition of the Work of the Artist from 1915-1966. Amon Carter Museum of Western Art, Fort Worth, TX (March 17-May 8, 1966).
    An American Place: Georgia O’Keeffe. An American Place, New York, NY (February 4-March 27, 1946).
  • {{cite web|title=Dead Tree with Pink Hill|url=false|author=Georgia O'Keeffe|year=1945|access-date=20 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1987.138