Artwork Title: Calla Lily with Roses

Calla Lily with Roses, 1926

Georgia O'Keeffe

Zantedeschia or Calla lily is a very beautiful flower. During the flower language boom in the Victorian period of the 19th century, there were strict social codes and if one had to express ones feelings, flowers were the best medium. Flowers delivered the feelings subtly and every part of gifting a flower, carried secret flower meanings. The person who made the offer to the way the flowers were arranged, all had a specific meaning. Thus passionate messages were delivered to the recipient, without the use of words through flowers. During this time, calla lily was used to express many such hidden symbols. Calla lily due to its physical resemblance to female genitalia was called an overtly sexual one. This sexual calla lily meaning was brought forward to admirers by Sigmund Freud and it was the favorite subject of artists like Diego Rivera and Georgia O’Keeffe. [https://thegenealogyofstyle.wordpress.com/2015/07/07/the-supposed-sexual-meaning-of-a-flower/]
Uploaded on Apr 9, 2018 by Suzan Hamer

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