In 1966, Life magazine sent photographer John Loengard to document a day in the life of artist Georgia O’Keeffe (Nov. 15, 1887–March 6, 1986) to mark her 80th birthday. Loengard took a series of candid shots, including this photo of O’Keeffe grooming her dogs at her home in Abiquiu, N.M.
O’Keeffe first visited New Mexico in 1929 and made it her permanent home in 1949 after the death of her husband Alfred Stieglitz three years before. Stieglitz was a New York City art dealer and photographer who had been the first to exhibit her work (1916), before their marriage.
O’Keeffe drew inspiration from the stark desert landscape and adobe architecture of New Mexico, and her work pivoted away from the large-scale paintings of flowers and New York skyscrapers for which she had been famous. O’Keeffe died in Santa Fe, N.M., in 1986 at the age of 98.
This and more images of O’Keeffe and her art are in the collections and archives at the Smithsonian.
