This photograph is part of Alfred Stieglitz’s remarkable multi-decade, multi-image portrait of artist Georgia O’Keeffe. Stieglitz first encountered O’Keeffe’s work in 1916 when it was shown to him by a mutual friend, Anita Pollitzer, and was immediately struck by its quality. The two began a correspondence; their romance began shortly thereafter and they were married in 1924. In this image, O’Keeffe poses before her charcoal drawing Special #15, one of a series of drawings she made of Palo Duro Canyon in Texas. This drawing was included in O’Keeffe’s first solo exhibition, at Stieglitz’s 291 Gallery, in 1917, and is now in the collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

The present photograph was likely printed in the 1930s, when Stieglitz frequently relied upon the firm of Peter S. Juley and Sons to make prints of his images for press and promotional purposes. The fact that it bears Stieglitz’s inscription and the address of his An American Place gallery on the reverse indicates that it met his high standards. Stieglitz's instruction to return the print to O’Keeffe suggests that it was sent by him on her behalf.