Dorothea Lange, White Angel Breadline, San Francisco, 1933. Dorothea Lange: The Family Collection.
Phillips is proud to present Dorothea Lange: The Family Collection, a trove of more than 100 photographs made available directly by the descendants of this seminal American photographer. The collection will be sold in two separate online auctions alongside Phillips’ October 2022 and April 2023 Photographs auctions in New York. The first will be exhibited at Phillips’ Park Avenue galleries in New York from 2-13 October, with bidding open on 3 October.
Left: Dorothea Lange, Selected Images from The Public Defender, 1955. Right: Dorothea Lange, Street Demonstration, San Francisco, 1933. Dorothea Lange: The Family Collection.
The two sales feature some of Lange’s most indelible images from her multi-decade career in photography, as well as many images which will be new to collectors. All were in the photographer’s collection at the time of her death, passed along to her descendants, and represent the entirety of her career — from the first images she made outside her portrait studio in San Francisco, through her work for the Farm Security Administration during the Depression, to her post-war documentary projects — much of it done in the company of her husband and collaborator Paul Taylor.
Highlights of the October offering include a print of one of Lange’s earliest and most decisive documentary images, White Angel Breadline, whose central figure embodies the poverty of the Depression and the grit to overcome it. The sale will feature a suite of 16 images from Lange’s celebrated Public Defender series of 1955, in which her detailed portrayal of a public defense attorney and his clients set the template for a new kind of photojournalism. It is the largest group from this series to appear at auction.
The sale also includes an unprecedented selection of her international photography begun in the 1950s, when she traveled with Taylor to Ireland, Egypt, and Asia, creating a panoramic portrait of humanity across all cultures.
Dorothea Lange, First Born, Berkeley, California, 1952. Dorothea Lange: The Family Collection.
Documenting America
Born in Hoboken, New Jersey, in 1895, Dorothea Lange learned to photograph as a young woman before her departure for the west coast in 1918. Talented and ambitious, Lange opened a portrait studio that catered to San Francisco’s upper crust. After witnessing first-hand the social upheaval caused by the Depression, she took to the streets with her camera, taking images of labor demonstrations, the newly unemployed, and men, women, and children who were without home or income – images that would set the trajectory for the rest of her career.
Left: Dorothea Lange, Kern County, California (Olson for governor), 1938. Right: Dorothea Lange, Shipyard Worker and Family in Trailer Camp, Richmond, California, 1944. Dorothea Lange: The Family Collection.
During the Depression, she traveled the country under the auspices of the Farm Security Administration, documenting the poverty endured by Americans and creating some of the most indelible and culturally relevant images of the 20th century. She brought her incisive and empathetic documentary style to a variety of national and international subjects during and after World War II. Lange was witness to a world in transition and her camera captured it all. Her photographs show that the story of the 20th century is the story of individuals. Lange’s grandchildren, Gregor and Andrew Dixon, and Lisa Perrin, share their recollections of their grandmother, and reflect upon her life and work here: Lot 9, Lot 30, Lot 31, Lot 38, Lot 46, Lot 47.
Dorothea Lange, Paul Taylor, and their Family, 1960s.
Dorothea Lange’s grandson, Gregor Dixon, recalls his grandmother’s role in their family:
Discover More from Dorothea Lange: The Family Collection >
Recommended Reading
The Big Picture: Photographs from the Amon Carter Museum of American Art >