Art History 229

ARTH 229: The Art of Natural History

Course Overview

The scientific revolutions of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries fundamentally changed perceptions of the natural world. New discoveries in the natural sciences and competing theories of evolution developed with corresponding shifts in conceptions of natural history, nature, and the proper place of humankind. Investigating connections between art and natural science, students examine Georgia O’Keeffe’s use of yellow-orange paint around skunk cabbage to convey the heat and stench the plant releases. Considering museum dioramas and the role of aesthetics in fabricating “natural history,” they learn how Isabella Kirkland examines specimens in natural history collections and designs utopian landscapes.


Canopy (from "2011: SEA (Social Environmental Aesthetics)")

2011 pigmented inkjet on Hahnemuhle 308 gram rag paper

Isabella Kirkland b. 1954

Gift of Exit Art, M.2012.15.7.C

Click the image to view it in full!

I want the images I build of select, representative species to stand witness to their own loss…..just as Guernica stood witness to a political massacre, and the painting, The Raft of the Medusa, bore witness to the sinking of a naval vessel.... I hope to make a meaningful set of iconic images that record, identify, represent, and bear witness to the fate of individual species.... these works will stand mute witness to some of the life forms lost during this Anthropocene Era.

-- Isabella Kirkland, 2017

A still life of stilled life: Isabella Kirkland at TEDxDeExtinction

... I wanted to be able to keep this human motivated loss in people's minds across time.... But really, it's the story of each species that makes me want to preserve the images of the things themselves. Each is so unique, so idiosyncratic.

-- Isabella Kirkland (TEDxDeExtinction, 2013)


Skunk Cabbage (Cos Cob)

1922 oil on canvas

Georgia O'Keeffe b. 1887, Sun Prairie, Wisconsin d. 1986, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Bequest of Kathryn Hurd, 82.22.40

Click on the image to view it in full!

So I said to myself - I'll paint what I see - what the flower is to me... I will make even busy New Yorkers take time to see what I see of flowers.

-- Georgia O'Keeffe

Scroll down for more information about Skunk Cabbage and its use in WCMA and beyond!

Reflectance Transformation Imaging (RTI)

Reflectance Transformation Imaging, also known as RTI, is a computational model made up of multiple photographs, but RTI models are all about light and texture.

We use RTI to learn more about artistic process and to see details that can be hard to notice with the naked eye. For example, in O'Keeffe's Skunk Cabbage, RTI revealed that the dark shadow at the bottom of the plant was actually a bright kelley green! The opacity of the paint used by O'Keeffe means that the true color is only visible under certain lighting conditions–the bright green appears and disappears as viewers move around the space in front of the painting. RTI allows us to capture this color shift in photographs and allows students to discover these hidden features for themselves!

Drag the arrows to reveal Skunk Cabbage before and after RTI!

Video of RTI

An RTI model allows the user to manipulate and mathematically enhance the light and reflectivity of the surface of an artwork, making it possible to see details that are invisible in person.

-- Beth Fischer, WCMA Assistant Curator of Digital Learning & Research

From a Botanist's Point of View

Botanist and Williams College Biology professor Joan Edwards discusses her use of Georgia O'Keeffe's Skunk Cabbage (1922) for her botany classes in a talk from the 2021 event "Cures for Strange Times" (linked below).

Professor Edwards uses O'Keeffe's painting for a close-looking assignment in which she asks her students to go to the Williams College Museum of Art to take a close look at Skunk Cabbage and write about what they see. After, the students then go and look at a real skunk cabbage in nature alongside Professor Edwards:

Skunk cabbage is New England's earliest blooming wildflower... And what's remarkable about skunk cabbage is it can bloom right through the snow... and the other thing that's distinctive about them is they have a very strong odor... they're all putting out this incredible skunky odor, hence the name skunk cabbage, so they're quite odiferous. And the reason they can do this is skunk cabbage can heat up, and it can heat up to 70 degrees, which is pretty amazing.... the skunk cabbage itself hits 70. So it heats up, that allows it to power through the snow, it also allows it to release an odor...

-- Dr. Joan Edwards, 2021

After closely viewing the painting and then the plant itself, students return back to O'Keeffe's work and discuss how their views have changed:

It's extraordinary.... They see this glow of light not just being light, but actually being heat emanating from the plant. They often mention this inner glow that they see, that they link up to the sexuality of the plant [skunk cabbage evolves from female to male]. So they see it in a totally different way, they see this [the yellow sections of the painting] almost as flames coming out of the plant... If you look at it carefully and you know the details of the plant, it changes how you enjoy it and how you interpret it.

-- Dr. Joan Edwards, 2021

Try it Yourself!

Compare the below images. After learning more about skunk cabbage from the above excerpts from Professor Edwards's talk, what do you notice in O'Keeffe's work? Does the RTI image further add to your close looking?

Created by the Curatorial Engagement Department at WCMA

StoryMap by Sidra Michael, Curatorial Engagement Intern and Grad Art class of 2025 with assistance from Liz Gallerani (Curator of Mellon Academic Programming) and Beth Fischer (Assistant Curator of Digital Learning & Research).

Drag the arrows to reveal Skunk Cabbage before and after RTI!