Street Demonstration, San Francisco

1934

Dorothea Lange

Artist, American, 1895 - 1965

A uniformed policeman standing in front of a dense crowd of men holding protest signs in English and Japanese nearly fills the height of this vertical black and white photograph. The policeman either has a ruddy complexion or his face might be in shadow. He stands with his body facing us but he turns his head to our left in profile. His hands are crossed over his chest and one thumb is hooked into his jacket between two of the eight brass buttons down the front. A seven-pointed star reflects light on his chest and his flat-topped hat has a short, shiny brim angled down over his eyes. The jacket comes to his knees and his pants are lined with gold or other light material down the side. His feet are widely planted, and he wears dark shoes. The men in the crowd behind appear to be light skinned. Many wear button-down, collared shirts with ties tucked into long coats. Many also wear fedora hats and look off to our left, the same direction as the policeman. One man to our right wearing a floppy cap and glasses looks out at us with his hands in his jacket pockets. Some of the legible English words on the protest signs read “UNION,” “AMERICAN PRESS SLANDER against the,” and “JA.”
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Artwork overview


Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Dorothea Lange, Berkeley, CA; by descent through Lange/Dixon Family; (David Raymond Fine Art, San Francisco, CA), 1998; (Michael Shapiro Gallery, San Francisco, CA); private collection, 2000; NGA purchase (through Michael Shapiro Gallery, San Francisco, CA), 2015.

Associated Names

Exhibition History

2015

  • Celebrating Photography at the National Gallery of Art: Recent Gifts, Washington, DC, November 1, 2015–February 28, 2016

Inscriptions

on verso, center stamped in black ink: PHOTOGRAPH BY / DOROTHEA LANGE / 1163 EUCLID AVENUE / BERKELEY / CALIFORNIA; by unknown hand, upper right circled in graphite: G; center: 34002-4

Wikidata ID

Q64146689


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