White Angel Breadline, one of Dorothea Lange’s most compelling images, has become a definitive representation of the human toll taken by the Depression. This photograph pre-dates her work for the Resettlement Administration (later the Farm Security Administration), and set the template for the humanistic approach she continued to pursue throughout her career.

In 1933, Lange operated her own portrait studio in San Francisco and catered to an affluent clientele. As she recounted many times, however, she could not ignore the growing number of newly unemployed people in the city, and she took to the street, camera in hand, to explore the situation. One early outing brought her to a breadline operated by a wealthy woman, known as the White Angel, who dispensed food to those in need. Lange exposed three negatives there, with her 3 ¼-by-4 ½ Graflex camera, each taken from a slightly different vantage point.

As evidenced by the stamps and labels on the reverse of this photograph, it was once in the files of Magnum, the collective photo agency founded in the late 1940s by Robert Capa, Henri Cartier Bresson, David ‘Chim’ Seymour, and other magazine photographers looking for representation outside of the conventional editorial system. Lange and her photographs were temperamentally aligned with Magnum’s idealism, and she worked with the agency in the 1950s and 1960s, supplying images from her past body of work and occasionally suggesting assignments. Lange’s oldest son, the writer Daniel Dixon, was employed in Magnum’s New York office in 1954.

It is not known when this print of White Angel Breadline entered Magnum. Shortly after her death in 1965, a selection of Lange’s best-known images was sent to Magnum by her assistant, Richard Conrat, with the understanding that Magnum would make high-quality copy negatives and then return the prints to Lange’s studio. By 1989, it was unclear whether these materials had been returned, prompting Lange’s younger son, John Dixon, to write to Magnum: ‘I have not seen anything in the files which indicate one way or the other whether or not that return was accomplished. Would you please check your files and advise me of this matter? If you still have them or any other of her original prints, we, her family, would like to have them.’ The Magnum label dated 1995 on the reverse of this print suggests its return was made in the subsequent decade.

The photographs in Dorothea Lange: The Family Collection were in the photographer’s collection at the time of her death and thenceforth passed to her descendants. The images represent the entirety of Lange’s career as one of the foremost documentary photographers of the 20th century, from work made before her engagement with the Resettlement Administration, later the Farm Security Administration, in the 1930s, to the travel photography that absorbed her in her final years, as well as more personal images of her family. Each print bears a Family Collection stamp on the reverse.
- Provenance
  Collection of Dorothea Lange
  By descent to the present owners
- Literature
  John Szarkowski, The Museum of Modern Art, Dorothea Lange, p. 20
  Robert Coles and and Therese Heyman, Dorothea Lange: Photographs of a Lifetime, p. 45
  Keith Davis, The Photographs of Dorothea Lange, p. 21
  Sarah Hermanson Meister, Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures, p. 27
  Pierre Borhan, Dorothea Lange: The Heart and Mind of a Photographer, p. 71
  Therese Heyman, John Szarkowski, and Sandra Phillips, Dorothea Lange: American Photographs, pl. 77
  Judith Keller, In Focus: Dorothea Lange, Photographs from the J. Paul Getty Museum, pl. 4
  Naomi Rosenblum, Sally Stein, et al., Dorothea Lange: The Human Face, p. 45
  Elizabeth Partridge, Restless Spirit: The Life and Work of Dorothea Lange, p. 41
  Anne Whiston Spirn, Daring to Look: Dorothea Lange's Photographs and Reports from the Field, p. 16
  Oliva María Rubio, Dorothea Lange: The Crucial Years, 1930-1946, pl. 11
  Linda Gordon, Dorothea Lange: Aperture Masters of Photography, p. 12
  Mike Venezia, Dorothea Lange, p. 23

Dorothea Lange: The Family Collection

3

Dorothea Lange

White Angel Breadline, San Francisco

1933
Gelatin silver print, printed later.
9 3/8 x 7 1/4 in. (23.8 x 18.4 cm)
Magnum credit stamps and labels, a family collection stamp, and notations in various unidentified hands in pencil and ink on the verso.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$20,000 - 30,000

Sold for $25,200

Contact Specialist

Christopher Mahoney
Senior International Specialist
+1 212 940 1245
cmahoney@phillips.com

Vanessa Hallett
Worldwide Head of Photographs and Deputy Chairwoman
+1 212 940 1243
vhallett@phillips.com

Dorothea Lange: The Family Collection

Online Auction 3 - 13 October 2022

1
Dorothea Lange
Kern County, California (Olson for governor)
Estimate $7,000 - 9,000
Sold for $8,820
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2
Dorothea Lange
Sharecropper's Wife (resident, Conway, Arkansas)
Estimate $5,000 - 7,000
Sold for $8,190
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3
Dorothea Lange
White Angel Breadline, San Francisco
Estimate $20,000 - 30,000
Sold for $25,200
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4
Dorothea Lange
Green County, Georgia (woman on porch)
Estimate $5,000 - 7,000
Sold for $10,080
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5
Dorothea Lange
Free Speech
Estimate $6,000 - 8,000
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6
Dorothea Lange
Street Demonstration, San Francisco
Estimate $8,000 - 12,000
Sold for $15,120
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7
Dorothea Lange
Labor Rally ('Food Not Battleships')
Estimate $5,000 - 7,000
Sold for $8,190
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8
Dorothea Lange
San Francisco ('We Demand Cash Relief')
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000
Sold for $9,450
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9
Dorothea Lange
Paul Taylor with Farm Workers, Alabama
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000
Sold for $3,780
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10
Dorothea Lange
Lettuce Cutters, Salinas, Valley, California
Estimate $4,000 - 6,000
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11
Dorothea Lange
N. J. Laney, Horses, Vehickles, Mules, Farm Implements
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000
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12
Dorothea Lange
Man in Hat on Street, Oklahoma
Estimate $5,000 - 7,000
Sold for $6,300
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13
Dorothea Lange
San Francisco (man lying on grass)
Estimate $5,000 - 7,000
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14
Dorothea Lange
The Yanks are Not Coming, Modesto, California
Estimate $4,000 - 6,000
Sold for $5,040
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15
Dorothea Lange
Ma Burnham, Conway, Arkansas
Estimate $5,000 - 7,000
Sold for $6,300
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16
Dorothea Lange
Man on Porch Reading Paper
Estimate $5,000 - 7,000
Sold for $10,080
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17
Dorothea Lange
Queenie, North Carolina
Estimate $4,000 - 6,000
Sold for $16,380
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18
Dorothea Lange
Migratory Cotton Pickers, Eloy, Arizona
Estimate $7,000 - 9,000
Sold for $8,820
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19
Dorothea Lange
Toilet at Bakersfield 'Dump'
Estimate $4,000 - 6,000
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20
Dorothea Lange
Selected Images of Newsstands and Headlines
Estimate $4,000 - 6,000
Sold for $8,820
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21
Dorothea Lange
Berkeley, California ('Sorry, Today's Gasoline Allotment Sold')
Estimate $6,000 - 8,000
Sold for $7,560
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22
Dorothea Lange
Club San Pablo
Estimate $2,500 - 3,500
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23
Dorothea Lange
Shipyard Worker and Family in Trailer Camp, Richmond, California
Estimate $6,000 - 8,000
Sold for $7,560
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24
Dorothea Lange
Trailer Near Richmond Shipyards
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000
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25
Dorothea Lange
On the Great Plains, Three Churches of Three Denominations, Near Winner, South Dakota
Estimate $5,000 - 7,000
Sold for $6,300
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26
Dorothea Lange
Clouds, Utah, from Three Mormon Towns
Estimate $7,000 - 9,000
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27
Dorothea Lange
Summer Pleasure, Gunlock, Utah
Estimate $5,000 - 7,000
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28
Dorothea Lange
Wooden Fence, Toquerville, Utah, from Three Mormon Towns
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000
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29
Dorothea Lange
Before Church, Gunlock, Utah (Mary Ellen Hunt), from Three Mormon Towns
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000
Sold for $3,780
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30
Dorothea Lange
First Born, Berkeley, California
Estimate $5,000 - 7,000
Sold for $6,300
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31
Dorothea Lange
Rebecca Dixon Chambers, Sausalito, California
Estimate $4,000 - 6,000
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32
Dorothea Lange
Selected Images from The Public Defender
Estimate $18,000 - 22,000
Sold for $22,680
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33
Dorothea Lange
Studebaker
Estimate $4,000 - 6,000
Sold for $5,040
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34
Dorothea Lange
Man Sleeping on Bench
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000
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35
Dorothea Lange
Drunk Drivers Go To Jail
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000
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36
Dorothea Lange
Pickets on Market Street, Western Union Telegrapher Strike
Estimate $4,000 - 6,000
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37
Dorothea Lange
Market Street, Consumer Relations, San Francisco
Estimate $5,000 - 7,000
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38
Dorothea Lange
Springtime in Berkeley, California (gardener)
Estimate $4,000 - 6,000
Sold for $5,040
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39
Dorothea Lange
Spring in New York City
Estimate $6,000 - 8,000
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40
Dorothea Lange
Couple Walking, New York City
Estimate $4,000 - 6,000
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41
Dorothea Lange
New York City (man in raincoat)
Estimate $4,000 - 6,000
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42
Dorothea Lange
Shipyard Worker, New York City
Estimate $7,000 - 9,000
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43
Dorothea Lange
Child Sleeping in Stroller
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000
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44
Dorothea Lange
Café Near Pinole, California
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000
Sold for $7,560
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45
Dorothea Lange
Portrait of a Girl, County Clare, Ireland
Estimate $7,000 - 9,000
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46
Dorothea Lange
Procession Bearing Food for the Dead, Egypt
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000
Sold for $3,780
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47
Dorothea Lange
Pathan Warrior Tribesman, Khyber Pass
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000
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48
Dorothea Lange
Field Workers, Korea
Estimate $4,000 - 6,000
Sold for $5,040
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49
Dorothea Lange
Mother and Child, India
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000
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50
Dorothea Lange
Venezuela (man holding hat)
Estimate $3,000 - 5,000
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Dorothea Lange: The Family Collection

Online Auction 3 - 13 October 2022

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Provenance

Literature

3

Dorothea Lange

White Angel Breadline, San Francisco

Dorothea Lange: The Family Collection

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