Dorothea Lange

large-format, mounted, 1933, printing date unknown (MoMA, p. 20; Davis, cover and p. 21)

 

This photograph, on lightly-textured paper with a surface sheen, is in generally very good condition. There is very minor edge wear, with resultant miniscule chipping. Upon close examination, the following are visible: a small soft crease in the lower left quadrant; a small sharp crease near the left edge; hairline creasing in the upper left corner; and 2 pin-point-sized impressions in the upper left quadrant. None of these issues are immediately apparent, and they do not detract in any way from the overall impressive quality of this print. The print is on a thin cream-colored mount. There is light soiling overall on the front and reverse of the mount, and there is evidence of some exposure to moisture along the left mount edge. On the reverse of the mount, the number '477' has been penciled in the upper right corner in an unidentified hand. Other than this penciled number, there are no markings. This print does not appear to fluoresce when examined under ultraviolet light. Lange cropped this picture in many different ways over the years. In one of the earliest prints of this image to appear at auction, for instance, a print sent by Lange to U. S. Camera in 1934 (Sotheby's New York, 15 October 2007, Sale 8349, Lot 25), much of the full negative is shown. In a print given by Lange in 1936 to the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago (Sotheby's New York, 11 October 2005, Sale 8155, Lot 115), the cropping is very tight on each side. As noted in the catalogue entry for the photograph offered here, the cropping on the present photograph corresponds to the Family of Man-associated print from the early 1950s, made by Irwin Welcher. It also corresponds to the cropping of the image reproduced in John Szarkowski's catalogue for the Lange retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art in 1966 (Dorothea Lange, New York Graphic Society, 1966, p. 20). As noted, the prints for the retrospective were also made by Welcher. If, indeed, the print offered here was made by Irwin Welcher, it is almost assuredly a print made with Dorothea Lange's detailed input. In his acknowledgments for The Museum of Modern Art catalogue cited above, John Szarkowski thanks Welcher, 'who, on the basis of the photographer's work prints and notations produced the exhibition prints. This demanding task was begun during the photographer's lifetime, and under her supervision; her judgment of these prints was that they were a full realization of her intention' (ibid., p. 5). As Anne Whiston Spirn notes in her Daring to Look: Dorothea Lange's Photographs and Reports from the Field (University of Chicago Press, 2008), Lange herself 'arranged for an expert printer, Irwin Welcher, to produce the prints [for her retrospective]. She provided explicit instructions, explaining her goals, why she had made certain photographs, and what mood she wanted the prints to convey' (p. 54). Large prints of any of Lange's images are scarce. This photograph has recently undergone minor conservation, primarily consisting of surface cleaning. A treatment report is available upon request.
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.

This unusually large print of Lange’s famous White Angel Breadline was owned by photo-historians and curators Beaumont and Nancy Newhall, long-time friends of Lange and champions of her work.  Beaumont Newhall first became acquainted with Lange’s photographs through an early gift of prints from the F. S. A. to The Museum of Modern Art.   In 1940, he included Lange in Sixty Photographs, the inaugural exhibition of the Museum’s new Department of Photographs, and he continued to promote and exhibit her work while at MoMA and later at the George Eastman House.  In 1958, Newhall selected Lange and only 18 other photographers for his anthology Masters of Photography.  In a letter to Lange that same year, Nancy Newhall called White Angel Breadline and Migrant Mother ‘two of the greatest and most moving photographs yet made’ (quoted in Milton Meltzer, Dorothea Lange, p. 309).

How and when the present print entered the Newhalls’ collection is not known.  It is an exhibition-sized print, and in size and cropping it compares very favorably to a print sold in these rooms in October 2008 (Sale 8475, Lot 34).  That print was made in the early 1950s, in conjunction with Steichen’s Family of Man exhibition, by the master printer Irwin Welcher (sometimes spelled Welsher).  Welcher worked closely with Lange on the printing of her negatives over a number of years, and was chosen by Lange to print all of the images for her 1966 retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art.