Dorothea Lange

flush-mounted to Masonite, annotated '#6' in an unidentified hand in pencil on the reverse, 1932, printed no later than 1955

Gift of Edward Steichen to Irwin Welsher, Floor Manager at General Graphics Services after the Family of Man exhibition, circa 1955

Gift of Irwin Welsher to a California collector, 1977

To the present owner from the above

Other prints of this image, with variant croppings:

Thomas J. Maloney, U. S. Camera 1935, p. 157

Ansel Adams, How To Do It Series, No. 8: Making a Photograph, An Introduction to Photography (New York, 1935), p. 93

John Szarkowski, Dorothea Lange (The Museum of Modern Art, 1966, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 20

Therese Thau Heyman, Celebrating a Collection: The Work of Dorothea Lange (The Oakland Museum, 1978, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 57

Dorothea Lange: Photographs of a Lifetime (Aperture, 1982), p. 45

Therese Thau Heyman, Sandra S. Phillips, and John Szarkowski, Dorothea Lange: American Photographs (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1994, in conjunction with the exhibition), pl. 1

Karen Tsujimoto, Dorothea Lange, Archive of an Artist (Oakland Museum, 1995), p. 9

Keith F. Davis, The Photographs of Dorothea Lange (Kansas City, 1995), cover and p. 21

Pierre Borhan, Dorothea Lange: The Heart and Mind of a Photographer (Boston, 2002), p. 71

Barbara Haskell, The American Century: Art and Culture, 1900-1950 (Whitney Museum of American Art, 1999, in conjunction with the exhibition), pl. 483

Vicki Goldberg and Robert Silberman, American Photography: A Century of Images (San Francisco, 1999), p. 82

Marianne Fulton, Eyes of Time: Photojournalism in America (Boston, 1988, in conjunction with the exhibition), p. 133

Ann Thomas, Modernist Photographs from the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, 2007), pl. 43

This photograph is in generally excellent condition. There is minor discoloration along the right edge, most noticeable in the upper quadrant. There is chipping in the emulsion along the center section of the lower edge. In raking light the following are visible: a 1/4-inch hairline indentation in the lower left quadrant, which does not break the emulsion; several barely noticeable, very small indentations, two of which break the emulsion; and a very minor one inch mark in the lower right corner. On the reverse, the Masonite board is in generally excellent condition. The board has been painted black. It is annotated '#6' in pencil in an unidentified hand in the upper quadrant, and is partially hidden by the hinged cardboard stand attached in the middle of the board. There are abrasions along the top of the reverse, possibly from the removal of old labels or a previous mount. The prints were mounted on Masonite with a hinged cardboard stand attached to the reverse. Welsher made sure the Masonite was prepared with a pH-neutral primer before mounting the photo, which has prevented the Masonite from adversly affecting the photograph over the years.This image has been stored in an environmentally controlled art conservation studio for the past 25 years.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

The print of Dorothea Lange's White Angel Breadline offered here was used by Edward Steichen in his planning for the 1955 Museum of Modern Art blockbuster exhibition, The Family of Man.  Both Lange's images and input were crucial to the success of this internationally famous show.  During the exhibition's formative years, Lange served as Steichen's and the show's agent on the West Coast, scouting pictures, soliciting photographers, and helping to construct the interweaving themes that would comprise the exhibition's narrative.  In preparation for the actual show, she moved to New York for periods of time, spending long days and nights with Steichen and his assistant Wayne Miller, arranging and re-arranging images and text.  The Family of Man ultimately included nine of Lange's own photographs, among the highest number of photographs in the show by a single photographer. 

The mammoth exhibition was organized around key, or 'keystone,' images, one of which was Dorothea Lange's White Angel Breadline.  As Milton Meltzer points out in his biography, Dorothea Lange: A Photographer's Life, Steichen was extremely particular about the printing of each of the show's images, even in the exhibition's organizational stages (cf. pp. 295-97).  For most of the entries, only one preliminary print, or 'mock-up,' was necessary.  For keystone images, however, around which the rest of the show was sequenced, Steichen wanted to see a variety of exposures with differing tonal values.   An earlier owner of the present print confirms that in the case of White Angel Breadline, Steichen asked that several different prints be made, including the print offered here, to determine which exposure would be used for the print in the exhibition.  A group of five prints with varying exposures was then made by Irwin Welsher of General Graphics Services in San Francisco, presumably under Lange's supervision.  Welsher, a master printer, had worked with Lange and other photographers in the Bay Area in the 1950s and 1960s, and the present print is a testament to his considerable skills.  Welsher went on to print 'mock-ups' of other photographers' images, as well as some of the large-scale prints used in the exhibition.  After the Family of Man closed, Steichen gave the original group of five versions of White Angel Breadline to Welsher as a gesture of thanks for his work. 

In 1977, on the eve of his retirement, Welsher presented his floor manager at General Graphics Services the opportunity to choose as a gift one of the keystone prints of White Angel Breadline.   In a letter which accompanies this lot, the floor manager recounts, 'Mr. Welsher then asked me which of the exposures I preferred.  I indicated my choice and he said, "That's the one Steichen chose."'