Formerly enslaved woman, Alabama

1938, printed c. 1960s

Dorothea Lange

Associated Names
Dorothea Lange

Artist, American, 1895 - 1965

The image shows an elderly woman standing and leaning slightly forward, holding a wooden stick with both hands. She has prominent cheekbones and a focused expression. She wears a white headscarf, a light-colored checkered dress, a collared shirt, a dark jacket, and large hoop earrings. The background is a rural setting with open fields and trees in the distance.
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Artwork overview

  • Medium

    gelatin silver print

  • Credit Line

    Gift of Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser

  • Dimensions

    image: 24 × 19 cm (9 7/16 × 7 1/2 in.)
    sheet: 25.2 × 20.3 cm (9 15/16 × 8 in.)

  • Accession Number

    2016.191.59

  • Series Title

    The American Country Woman

Artwork history & notes

Provenance

Dorothea Lange, Berkeley, CA; private collection, CA. (Bruce Silverstein Gallery, New York); Daniel Greenberg and Susan Steinhauser, Van Nuys, CA, 3 July 2009; gift to NGA, 2016.

Associated Names

Bibliography

1966

  • Museum of Modern Art. Dorothea Lange. Exh. cat. Museum of Modern Art, New York, 1966: 43.

1967

  • Newhall, Beaumont. Dorothea Lange Looks at the American Country Woman. Fort Worth and Los Angeles, 1967: 53.

1978

  • Meltzer, Milton. Dorothea Lange: A Photographer's Life. Toronto, 1978: 216.

1982

  • Hoffman, Michael E., ed. Dorothea Lange: Photographs of a Lifetime. New York, 1982: 93.

1994

  • San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Dorothea Lange: American Photographs. Exh. cat. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, 1994: pl. 62.

2013

  • Partridge, Elizabeth. Dorothea Lange: Grab a Hunk of Lightning: Her Lifetime in Photography. San Francisco, 2013: 103.

Inscriptions

on verso, artist's stamp, center in black ink: PHOTOGRAPH BY / DOROTHEA LANGE / 1163 EUCLID AVENUE / BERKELEY / CALIFORNIA; by unknown hand, bottom center, DLA-00033-SP

Wikidata ID

Q64146794

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