Juan Hamilton, 79, who served as the caretaker and confidant of artist Georgia O’Keeffe in her later years, died on February 20 in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Their relationship began when Hamilton, then 27, approached O’Keeffe for work at Ghost Ranch. He eventually managed her affairs, fostering her creativity while also promoting his own art career. After O’Keeffe’s passing in 1986, Hamilton faced accusations of undue influence over her will, which favored him significantly. Despite controversies, he was recognized for his deep bond with O’Keeffe. He later sold some of her works but retained significant pieces until his death.
Juan Hamilton, an emerging artist who enriched the later years of painter Georgia O’Keeffe as her younger caretaker, confidant, and protégé, but who became the target of sensational claims as the primary beneficiary of her will, passed away on February 20 at his home in Santa Fe, New Mexico. He was 79.
His death was confirmed by his wife, Anna Marie Hamilton, and resulted from complications related to a subdural hematoma suffered several years prior.
For the final decade of Ms. O’Keeffe’s life, Mr. Hamilton was her closest companion. At their initial meeting, he was a 27-year-old, vibrant, recently divorced potter with a well-crafted mustache, while she was an 85-year-old petite woman, increasingly blind. Her bohemian history, artistic creativity, and unwavering dedication to her craft embodied the essence of modern art.
As a childless widow, Ms. O’Keeffe resided in rural New Mexico, far from her relatives in Wisconsin. Many who visited her were strangers—young seekers who had traveled great distances to gain her approval and experience her presence.
Mr. Hamilton was one such seeker. Their relationship would ultimately influence the future of Ms. O’Keeffe’s estate, valued at approximately $90 million, and who would safeguard her legacy. It would also leave a lasting imprint on Mr. Hamilton’s life, providing him with a considerable fortune, a fluctuating artistic career, and memories that would accompany him until the end.
It all began one Labor Day weekend morning in 1973. Mr. Hamilton was working as a handyman at Ghost Ranch, a vast property primarily owned by the Presbyterian Church, where Ms. O’Keeffe lived.
He knocked on her back door, asking if she required any odd jobs.
Ms. O’Keeffe replied that she did not, prompting him to start leaving.
“Wait a moment,” she called after him. “Could you help me pack a shipping crate?”
Mr. Hamilton would later recount that his journey to Ghost Ranch had been inspired by a “dream-fantasy.” He envisioned finding Ms. O’Keeffe, offering her one of his pottery pieces, and discovering that she needed a friend, leading to a significant transformation for both.
Initially, he performed menial tasks, but over time he took on more personal responsibilities, such as cutting her food during meals and managing her correspondence. Occasionally, he would stay with her in the evenings to enjoy Beethoven piano sonatas. Their travels together took them to Antigua, Guatemala, Morocco, and New York.
He also took on the roles of editor and curator, assisting in the production of books and exhibitions about Ms. O’Keeffe and her late husband, the photographer and gallerist Alfred Stieglitz, earning accolades, including from Joan Didion and the art critic Hilton Kramer.
Encouraged by Mr. Hamilton, Ms. O’Keeffe returned to watercolor for the first time in decades and featured in a 1977 documentary, which The New York Times noted as “the first time the artist agreed to a film portrait of herself and her work.”
The inspiration was mutual; working with clay and bronze, Mr. Hamilton advanced beyond pottery into abstract sculpting, mastering how lacquer and polish interact with light.
In a 1977 interview with ARTnews, Ms. O’Keeffe remarked about Mr. Hamilton, “I believe there’s something in him that resembles pure crystal.”
The Times featured them in a 1979 piece titled “The Older Woman-Younger Man Relationship: A Taboo Fades.” Friends remarked that their bond was not sexual but rather intensely affectionate.
“There is bias against us because she is an older woman,” Mr. Hamilton stated in an interview with People magazine, “while I’m young and somewhat handsome.”
Gallerists eager to connect with Ms. O’Keeffe had to go through him, and exhibitions of his sculptures gained popularity. The Times art critics Grace Glueck and John Russell both praised his abstract bronze works.
In 1978, he showcased his work in New York, attended by notable figures like Andy Warhol and Joni Mitchell, as well as a representative of Doris Bry, Ms. O’Keeffe’s recently dismissed agent. This representative filed a lawsuit against Mr. Hamilton for “malicious interference” in the relationship between Ms. Bry and Ms. O’Keeffe.
The lawsuit, along with two others related to Ms. O’Keeffe and Ms. Bry, were settled, but it foreshadowed a series of complications. “There was significant jealousy, and a lot of ‘let’s target Juan,’” a friend shared with The Washington Post.
In 1980, Mr. Hamilton married Anna Marie (Prohoroff) Erskine, another devotee of Ghost Ranch, and they welcomed two sons, Albert and Brandon. As Ms. O’Keeffe’s health declined, the family moved in with her in Santa Fe, close to a hospital. She passed away at 98 in 1986.
By that point, Mr. Hamilton held power of attorney over her affairs. However, after her death, new revelations emerged: a codicil to Ms. O’Keeffe’s will, established in 1984, shifted “just under $40 million worth of O’Keeffe’s artwork” and “approximately $50 million worth of property” from charitable institutions to Mr. Hamilton, as a lawyer for Ms. O’Keeffe’s niece June Sebring later revealed in court.
Ms. Sebring was among several relatives who alleged that Mr. Hamilton had exercised “undue influence.” A series of contentious disputes followed.
In a deposition, Ms. O’Keeffe’s last living sibling, Catherine Klenert, described Mr. Hamilton as “nothing but a tramp.” In Roxana Robinson’s 1989 biography “Georgia O’Keeffe: A Life,” relatives referred to him as a “gigolo,” suggesting that their relationship was complicated by “greed.”
Nonetheless, The Washington Post reported in 1987 that “there is no doubt that it was Hamilton, not her relatives, who provided care for O’Keeffe in her final years, offering her both joy and purpose.”
In a critical 1990 review of Ms. Robinson’s biography in The Journal of Art, critic Barbara Rose stated, “Juan Hamilton was not Georgia O’Keeffe’s lover; he was the son she never had.”
He was described as “the only individual she completely trusted,” Ms. Rose continued, for he was committed to protecting the integrity of an artist’s vision after her passing, mirroring what Ms. O’Keeffe had done for her husband, Mr. Stieglitz.
Eventually, Mr. Hamilton reached a resolution with her relatives, reverting to an earlier will version and allocating millions to the family. He acquired over two dozen artworks and a significant portion of her property, leading to the establishment of a foundation to manage many of the estate’s dealings.
In her essay, Ms. Rose remarked that without Mr. Hamilton’s guidance, Ms. O’Keeffe’s creations were being commercialized, lamenting, “Everything O’Keeffe feared has transpired; her images have been diminished, her life turned into a soap opera.”
John Bruce Hamilton was born on December 22, 1945, in Dallas. He was known as Juan due to spending most of his childhood in Ecuador, Colombia, and Venezuela, where his parents, Alan and Claire (Kitzmiller) Hamilton, served as Presbyterian missionaries, and his father also held the position of school principal. His mother introduced Juan to local potters, sparking his interest in clay.
During his teenage years, the family resided on Manhattan’s Upper West Side and in Glen Rock, New Jersey. He earned a bachelor’s degree in studio art from Hastings College in Nebraska and subsequently studied sculpture at Claremont Graduate University in California.
After Ms. O’Keeffe’s estate was settled, Mr. Hamilton acquired a large property in Honolulu and a farm on Maui. His sons attended private school, yet he experienced a decline in status within the art community.
“The entire narrative surrounding Juan was so sensationalized that it made people hesitant to take him seriously,” his wife, Ms. Hamilton, stated in an interview. “I believe he grew progressively more disillusioned.”
While he continued to sell his artwork, he shifted his focus towards landscaping his farm.
In addition to his wife and sons, he is survived by a sister, Elizabeth Hildreth, and two grandchildren. His first marriage to Victoria Weber ended in divorce.
Despite claims of being a fortune seeker, for many years Mr. Hamilton retained the art and memorabilia he had received from Ms. O’Keeffe. In 2020, he opted to sell over 100 items from his collection through Sotheby’s, achieving $17.2 million, as reported by ARTnews.
However, he refused to part with a painting that had inspired his sculptures, along with several prints and drawings by Constantin Brancusi that Ms. O’Keeffe had gifted him.
By the end of his life, Mr. Hamilton struggled with mobility. From his bed, he frequently requested that his wife bring him the artworks that he and Ms. O’Keeffe had cherished so long ago.