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

Create your first list.

Select an existing list or create a new list to share and manage lots you follow.

  • Dorothea Lange’s characteristically concise caption for this image encapsulates not only the subject’s story, but the story of so many Americans whom environmental and economic conditions drove from the Southern and Plains states to California in search of a better life in the 1930s. Farmers, field workers, and laborers made up a mass migration across the continent, and many set out for the fertile San Joaquin Valley, where this image was made. Lange had photographed the valley extensively, primarily documenting cotton farming. But she also connected with many migrants who were passing through. 

    “I many times encountered courage, real courage. Undeniable courage. I've heard it said that that was the highest quality of the human animal. I encountered that many times, in unexpected places. And I have learned to recognize it when I see it.”
    —Dorothea Lange
    The subject of this photograph is a farmer from Missouri whose quest for a better life was abruptly halted when his car broke down. Lange captures in his eyes not only desperation, but also his dignity and perseverance. Ditched, Stalled, and Stranded has become one of Lange’s most famous images, one that is emblematic of the human toll of the Depression. 

     

    In 2002 when the United States Postal Service issued a set of stamps devoted to Masters of American Photography, Ditched, Stalled, and Stranded was chosen as the image to represent Lange. 

     

    Dorothea Lange’s postage stamp in the Masters of American Photography set, issued in 2002. 

     

    • Provenance

      Photo-West Gallery, San Diego, 1990
      Collection of Susan Ehrens and Leland Rice, Oakland
      Christie's, New York, 12 October 2000, lot 48

    • Exhibited

      The American Century: Art and Culture 1900-2000, Part I, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, 23 April - 22 August 1999
      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

      Haskell, The American Century: Art and Culture 1900-1950, p 249
      Aperture, Dorothea Lange: Photographs of a Lifetime, p. 63, there dated 1935
      MacLeish, Land of the Free, pl. 2
      The Museum of Modern Art, Dorothea Lange, p. 26
      Taylor, Dorothea Lange, Farm Security Administration Photographs: 1935-1939, volume I, cover
      NSU Art Museum, American Scene Photography: Martin Z. Margulies Collection, exhibition catalogue, p. 40

114

Ditched, Stalled,and Stranded, San Joaquin Valley, California (A Missouri Farmer, Now A Migratory Farm Laborer on the Pacific Coast)

1936
Gelatin silver print.
9 3/8 x 7 3/8 in. (23.8 x 18.7 cm)

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$40,000 - 60,000 

Sold for $63,500

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