Born in Wisconsin, Georgia O’Keeffe divided her time between New York and New Mexico in the years 1929–49. Her first retrospective was mounted by the Art Institute of Chicago in 1943. An influential member of the circle of early modernists that formed around her husband, photographer and dealer Alfred Stieglitz, she was particularly recognized for her synthesis of abstraction and representation, as well as for her superb technical skill. Frequently taking inspiration from natural forms of the Southwest, O’Keeffe rendered two distinct objects—a skull and a feather—in this strong, yet subtle drawing, paying particular attention to the formal relationships between
the two.