Dorothea Lange - Photographs from the Martin Z. Margulies Foundation New York Thursday, April 4, 2024 | Phillips

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  • Born in Hoboken 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. 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 culturally relevant images of the 20th century. Lange’s photographs illustrated the human toll of the Depression and are in large part responsible for our historical understanding of this period in American history. 

    • Provenance

      Laurence Miller Gallery, New York, 2005

    • Exhibited

      American Scene Photography: Martin Z. Margulies Collection, NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, 30 October 2014 – 22 March 2015
      The Bitter Years: Dorothea Lange and Walker Evans, Photographs from the Martin Z. Margulies Collection, The Margulies Collection at the Warehouse, Miami, 19 October 2022 – 29 April 2023; Gibbes Museum of Art, Charleston, 8 September 2023 – 14 January 2024

    • Literature

      Davis, The Photography of Dorothea Lange, p. 35
      San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Dorothea Lange: American Photographs, pl. 6 (both variants)
      Heyman, Celebrating a Collection: The Work of Dorothea Lange, p. 26.
      Borhan, Dorothea Lange, the Heart and Mind of a Photographer, p. 193
      Stein, Dorothea Lange: The Human Face, p. 93

105

A Sign of the Times–Mended Stockings, Stenographer, San Francisco

1934
Gelatin silver print, printed 1950s.
9 3/8 x 7 1/2 in. (23.8 x 19.1 cm)
'1163 Euclid Avenue, Berkeley, California' credit stamp on the verso.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$30,000 - 50,000 

Sold for $31,750

Contact Specialist

Caroline Deck
Senior Specialist, Photographs
cdeck@phillips.com

Vanessa Hallett
Worldwide Head of Photographs and Chairwoman, Americas
vhallett@phillips.com

Photographs from the Martin Z. Margulies Foundation

New York Auction 4 April 2024