Lake George, Coat and Red

Lake George, Coat and Red by Georgia O'Keeffe is a significant oil on canvas painting created in 1919. This pivotal piece marks a transitional phase in the artist’s development, bridging her early experimental watercolors with the iconic, large-scale abstractions that would define her later career. Classified as an American painting from the immediate post-World War I era, the work reflects the complex environment of the Stieglitz circle during their stays in the Adirondacks.

The composition focuses on a heavily stylized, nearly abstracted figure draped in a large, bold red coat, contrasting sharply with the cool blues and muted greens suggestive of the Lake George landscape backdrop. O’Keeffe employed oil on canvas with a smooth, decisive application, favoring large planes of color that emphasize the monumental simplicity of the subject. The artist sought to convey the essence of the experience rather than merely recording visual details. Unlike some of her contemporaneous watercolors, this work showcases a confident mastery of oil painting, allowing for a profound simplification of natural forms and an emphasis on formal structure. The intense red serves as both a powerful formal anchor and an emotional focal point within the canvas.

Created during a highly productive period in New York, Lake George, Coat and Red demonstrates O'Keeffe’s growing confidence in fusing European modernist influences, particularly those related to photography and precisionism, with uniquely American subjects. The period of 1919 was critical for defining early American abstraction, and this canvas stands as a foundational text of that movement. Today, the painting is housed in the collection of the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, ensuring its status as a vital reference point for scholars of 20th-century art. While the original remains preserved in the museum, the enduring global appeal of O'Keeffe's work means that high-quality prints and reproductions continue to make key aspects of this American masterpiece accessible to art enthusiasts.