Georgia O’Keeffe avidly collected seashells on her travels. Later in life she recalled, “Each shell was a beautiful world in itself,” and “I have always enjoyed painting them—and even now, living in the desert, the sea comes back to me when I hold one to my ear.” ^[1] In 1926 she painted a number of seashell subjects, culminating in seven paintings in a series titled Shell and Old Shingle.

O’Keeffe returned to the seashell motif in 1928 with three works, including Shell No. 1, all exhibited at the Intimate Gallery in New York in 1929. ^[2] The National Gallery’s painting represents the chambered or pearly nautilus (Nautilus pompilius) set against a dark charcoal background. The nautilus is found in the deep tropical waters of the Indo-Pacific Ocean, so O’Keeffe likely bought the shell rather than finding it. This type of shell has long stimulated the imagination. It was the subject, for example, of Oliver Wendell Holmes’s poem “The Chambered Nautilus” (1858). Because of the nautilus’s harmonious spiral shape, images of the shell can evoke the perfection of nature or infinity.

O’Keeffe chose to represent the shell in a life-size painting measuring only seven by seven inches. The edges of her subject are barely contained by the borders of her canvas, resulting in a startingly direct and striking representation despite the small size. The shadowy background, which softly blends with and overlaps the form of the shell at its bottom edge, may represent a studio cloth or even sand. Photographer Edward Weston (American, 1886–1958) also explored the evocative potential of the nautilus shell around this time, creating images such as Nautilus Shell ^[fig1] and Shell 1 (1927). ^[3] Both artists were likely attracted to the nautilus because of its symmetry and mystique, as well as its potential for abstraction.

O’Keeffe returned to the form of the nautilus repeatedly. The composition of The Shell ^[fig2], a charcoal drawing also in the collection of the National Gallery, resembles that of Shell No. 1, but the drawing measures over twice the size of the painting. Red Hill and White Shell (1938, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston) and the pastel White Shell with Red (1938, Art Institute of Chicago) both place a nautilus shell against a fiery desert landscape. A similar spiral configuration appears in her sculpture Abstraction (1946, Promised gift to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR). ^[4]

The lightweight, plain-weave fabric support is attached to its original stretcher. The artist applied oil paint thinly and precisely over a commercially prepared white ground. Infrared reflectography revealed a more pronounced outlining of the circular form of the shell beneath the white paint. The painting is in excellent condition. The frame was made by George F. Of, O’Keeffe’s framer. The surface is unvarnished.

Michael Swicklik

July 24, 2024