GEORGIA O'KEEFFE AND ALFRED STIEGLITZ'S MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE

CERTIFICATE OF MARRIAGE

GEORGIA O'KEEFFE AND ALFRED STIEGLITZ'S MARRIAGE CERTIFICATE

Lithographed document by C. R. Gibson & Co., New York (9 1/8 x 11 3/4 in.), accomplished in typescript and signed by the officiant, Joseph M. Marini, the Mayor of Cliffside Park, New Jersey, and witnesses John C. Marin and Geogre H. Engelhard. Accompanied by an envelope with letterhead of Marini's law practice, inscribed by O'Keeffe, "Marriage Certificate— | Alfred Stieglitz | & | Georgia O'Keeffe."

This rather somber certificate records that "Mr. Alfred Stieglitz of Lake George, New York, and Miss Georgia T. O'Keeffe of Lake George, New York, were by [Joseph M. Marini] united in Holy Matrimony according to the ordinance of God and the laws of New Jersey at Cliffside Park on the Eleventh day of December 1924."

The look of the certificate was evidently appropriate to the occasion. Roxana Robinson wrote, "It was not a sentimental occasion. … There were no ceremonial preliminaries. … December 11, Alfred Stiegliz and Georgia went out to John Marin's house in Cliffside Park, New Jersey. With Marin and George Herbert Engelhard as witnesses, the two were married before a justice of the peace. There was no reception and no festivities; the couple went directly back to Manhattan" (Georgia O'Keeffe: A Life, p. 275).

O'Keeffe later maintained that she was not in favor of the wedding, which was held chiefly for the sake of Stieglitz's daughter from his first marriage.

PROVENANCE:

Alfred Stieglitz and Georgia O’Keeffe, Lake George, New York

Georgia O’Keeffe, Abiquiu, New Mexico, 1946 (by descent)

By descent to the present owner