Artist of the day, August 5: Ida O'Keeffe, an American painter

Ida Ten Eyck O'Keeffe ( 1889 – 1961) was an American visual artist known for oil paintings, watercolors, and monotypes. She was born in Sun Prairie, Wisconsin. She was the third of seven children. When Ida was 13, the family moved to Williamsburg, Virginia, where O'Keeffe took drawing classes in summer school at the University of Virginia. With her younger sister Anita and her more famous older sister Georgia, she studied art with local watercolor artist Sara Mann. They also had two grandmothers who were artists.

O'Keeffe's artistic start was as a printmaker. She then briefly worked as a nurse before earning her Master of Fine Arts degree from Columbia University. She painted approximately 70 canvases during her career. Her major themes included colorful, abstracted landscapes, and naturalistic still lifes. A number of her works feature lighthouses. She exhibited some works with her sisters Catherine and Georgia. Georgia gained more fame, partly because of a husband who worked as a well-known photographer and gallerist. O'Keeffe is known to have said, "I'd be famous, too, if I'd have had a Stieglitz." A 1933 review in a newspaper read "Georgia remains supreme."

O'Keeffe's first exhibition was in 1927 at the Opportunity Gallery in New York, where she was identified as Ida Ten Eyck, to avoid being compared to her sister, Georgia. In 1974, she was featured in an exhibition in Santa Fe. She was featured in a solo exhibition at the Dallas Museum of Art entitled "Ida O'Keeffe: Escaping Georgia's Shadow". A number of her works may be found in private collections.

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Ms Ida O'Keeffe

1832, Toadstool

1926, Still Life (Still Life with Fruit)

1927, Aquarium

1927, Peach blown vase

1930's Variation on a lighthouse theme IV detail

1930's Variation on a lighthouse theme IV

1930, Variations on a Lighthouse Theme III

1931-32, Variation on a Lighthouse Theme VI

1932, The Royal Oak of Tennessee

1932, Variation on a Lighthouse Theme VII

1933, Mt. Washington

1933, Variation on a lighthouse theme

1935, The fish

1936, Tulips

1936, Whirl of Life

1937, Pacific Coast

1938, Ozark Lime Kiln

1938, Star gazing in Texas

1939, The White Lilies

1939, Young Banana Plant.

1946, Portrait of a Banana Tree

Creation (Unknown date)

Ozark Fox Hounds (Unknown date)