After growing up on a dairy farm, Georgia O'Keeffe began a nomadic existence, studying and teaching art in Illinois, New York, Virginia, Texas, and South Carolina. In 1916, she met the photographer and gallerist Alfred Stieglitz, with whom she had a romantic and professional relationship lasting until his death in 1946. O'Keeffe became famous during the 1920s for her paintings of Manhattan's skyline, and for the lush, close-up views of flowers now synonymous with her name. In 1929, she became fascinated by the empty landscape of New Mexico. Her paintings are highly realistic, but use symbolic devices to evoke the character of the desert — especially huge animal bones suspended in the sky. O'Keeffe traveled regularly to New Mexico before relocating there permanently in 1949. She lived reclusively on her ranch until her death at age 98.