Formerly enslaved woman, Alabama

1938, printed 1950s

Dorothea Lange

Associated Names
Dorothea Lange

Artist, American, 1895 - 1965

The image shows an elderly woman captured from the waist up, standing outdoors, slightly turned to her left. She is looking away from the camera, with well-defined facial features and visible wrinkles. She is wearing a headscarf covering her hair entirely, along with a patterned dress or apron layered under a dark jacket. She is holding a long, slender stick in her hands. In the background, there is a field with lines of crops and tall grass along a dirt path she stands on, with trees visible in the distance.
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Artwork overview

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Dorothea Lange, Berkeley, CA; by descent to Helen Dixon, her daughter-in-law, CA, 1965; (RoseGallery, Santa Monica, CA); Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, Van Nuys, CA, 29 December 2000; gift to NGA, 2016.

Associated Names

Inscriptions

on verso, by unknown hand, top left in graphite underlined: AnD; across top: "EX SLAVE WITH A LONG MEMORY"; top right: PC / # 2 1/2 / F11 / 6 sec; upper center in blue ink: 38164; bottom left corner on white label in graphite: F80

Wikidata ID

Q64146693

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