 |
| Georgia O'Keefe at home. The Ghost Ranch , New Mexico (Alexander Calder mobile) |
 |
| “To me it is the best place in the world,” O’Keeffe (at 94) said of
Ghost Ranch. “It has always been secluded and solitary. When I first
went there, it was only one house with one room—which had a ghost living
in it. |
 |
| From House & Garden, 1965 |
 |
| Photo by Herbert Lotz / courtesy of the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum. |
 |
Georgia O’Keeffe Home, Abiquiu, NM Photo by Herb Lotz, courtesy Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
|
 |
Georgia O’Keeffe Home, Abiquiu, NM Photo by Herb Lotz, courtesy Georgia O’Keeffe Museum
|
"As soon as I saw it, I knew I must have it”
In 1929 Georgia O’Keeffe travelled to Taos at the invitation of
friends Dorothy Brett and Mabel Dodge Luhan. It was there she first
heard of Ghost Ranch and once even caught a tantalizing glimpse of it
from a high plain. In 1934 she finally visited the Ranch but was
dismayed to learn that it was a dude ranch owned by Arthur Pack and
Carol Stanley. However, a place was available for her that night in
Ghost House and she spent the entire summer at the Ranch.
This established a pattern she would follow for years, summers at
Ghost Ranch exploring on foot and on canvas the beauty of the place,
winters in New York. Because she was basically a loner, she sought
lodging at the Ranch that was somewhat isolated from the headquarters
area. Pack offered to rent her his own residence called Rancho de los
Burros. This suited her very well.
One spring O’Keeffe arrived
unexpectedly and found someone else lodging at Ranchos de los Burros.
Feeling a sense of ownership, she demanded to know what those people
were doing in her house. When Pack pointed out that it wasn’t her house,
she insisted that he sell it to her. Thus, in 1940, she became the
owner of a very small piece of Ghost Ranch land: a house and seven
acres. (In later years she told a Ranch employee doing roadwork near her
home, “I wanted enough land to keep a horse–all Arthur would sell me
was enough for my sewer!”)
But Rancho de los Burros was a summer place and also a desert one.
O’Keeffe wanted a garden and a winter home. Eventually, she bought three
acres in the village of Abiquiu with a crumbling adobe home. She spent
three years remodeling and rebuilding the house before it was fit for
human habitation. After her husband, Alfred Stieglitz, died, O’Keeffe
left New York to make Abiquiu her permanent home.
The Images i have used are from a variety of sources to try and give a good overview of the property. Please click on the links below the images for the source
