Though Georgia O’Keeffe painted all sorts of flowers, plants, and even weeds, Petunias is one of her most significant artworks.

This oil on panel painting was the first in a series of well regarded floral themed works and the last of her petunia paintings. O’Keeffe’s flower paintings have since become infamous, as it is widely thought that the floral motifs actually represent vaginas. However, the artist herself has denied this interpretation, claiming that her intention was only to represent the “essence” of the flowers. Whatever their bodily connotations, the sensual quality and distorted characteristics of O’Keeffe’s floral paintings synthesize realism and abstraction. 

Petunias may be a realistic depiction of the flower, but the choices O’Keeffe made in terms of color, scale, framing, and composition push the work into the realm of abstraction. Known for her use of highly saturated colors, the rich purple of the flower petals contrasts boldly with the muted gray and blue background, optically thrusting the petunias so much into the foreground it appears as though they may burst off of the picture plane. Additionally, the striking variation in highlights and shadows endows the flowers with a visual depth that makes them pop even more. The way in which the cluster of petunias is composed and framed makes it appear as though the viewer is looking at the flowers through a fish-eye lens or a magnifying glass, which establishes a visual intimacy between the viewer and the painting; O’Keeffe is  encouraging you to inspect the work up close. Doubling down on this intimacy, O’Keeffe also purposefully chose to compose the painting so that the tips of the flower petals press against the edges of the canvas, which conjures a sense of grandeur about this ubiquitous flower.

Throughout her career, O’Keeffe often painted flowers from the garden she kept at Stieglitz farm. Stieglitz was owned by her husband, the photographer Alfred Stieglitz, with whom O’Keeffe had a tumultuous and abusive relationship. In 1924, O’Keeffe planted blue and purple petunias in order to study their qualities and formal characteristics. This decision resulted in O’Keeffe painting her first ever large-scale floral painting, Petunia No. 2, which would catalyze her long-standing preoccupation with floral-focused paintings, many of which can be seen at the Georgia O’Keeffe Museum in Sante Fe, New Mexico. As many common flowers do, petunias hold symbolic meaning and cultural connotations. Purple petunias, in particular, are associated with fantasy, mystery and enchantment, however in general, petunias can also be associated with anger and resentment. An avid gardener and flower enthusiast, it is possible that O’Keeffe would have known that petunias symbolize hateful sentiments. That said, was O’Keeffe sending a message to her husband, or perhaps, a flippant response to all the vagina jokes?