154
Dorothea Lange
Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California
- Estimate
- $80,000 - 100,000
$118,750
Lot Details
Gelatin silver print, printing date unknown.
1936
13 1/2 x 10 3/8 in. (34.3 x 26.4 cm)
Accompanied by a typed letter signed by Rondal Partridge.
Specialist
Full-Cataloguing
Catalogue Essay
It is believed that this masterfully-made print of Lange’s most iconic image came originally from the collection of Irwin Welcher, the San Francisco-based photographic printer who worked with Dorothea Lange in the 1950s and 1960s. Lange first encountered Welcher when he was hired to make prints for Edward Steichen’s monumental Family of Man exhibition, an exhibition for which Lange was Steichen’s west coast representative. Welcher was also involved in printing the photographs for Lange’s 1966 retrospective at The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Lange may have given this print to Welcher as a guide print.
This print was shown to photographer Rondal Partridge (1917-2015), who worked with Lange during her years as photographer for the Farm Security Administration, and remained close to her throughout her life. Ron, as his friends called him, was the son of photographer Imogen Cunningham and worked with Lange in her darkroom in Berkeley, California. He was an acknowledged expert on her life and prints. In the 2009 letter that accompanies this photograph, Ron outlines his opinion that the print was made by Lange, stating that it “exhibits all of the typical tonality of Dorothea’s printing from 1922 to 1945.” Indeed, the print is distinguished by a nuanced tonality and high level of detail.
It is also possible that this print was made by Welcher, likely to Lange’s specifications during the period they worked together. Welcher was a sensitive and scrupulous interpreter of Lange’s photographs, and his prints of her images that have come to market all share the same high degree of print quality and rich tonality as the print offered here. In a 1966 interview, Welcher described the experience of working with Lange: “My association with Dorothea was more than that of a businessman and a client. There was an empathy. Many times Dorothea had only to say a word or two and I immediately grasped what she meant . . . As for myself, I can say this was truly a labor of love. It is not very often that one gets the opportunity to be a part of the history of art” (“Dorothea Lange and Her Printer,” Popular Photography, Volume 59, No. 1, July 1966, p. 70).
This print was shown to photographer Rondal Partridge (1917-2015), who worked with Lange during her years as photographer for the Farm Security Administration, and remained close to her throughout her life. Ron, as his friends called him, was the son of photographer Imogen Cunningham and worked with Lange in her darkroom in Berkeley, California. He was an acknowledged expert on her life and prints. In the 2009 letter that accompanies this photograph, Ron outlines his opinion that the print was made by Lange, stating that it “exhibits all of the typical tonality of Dorothea’s printing from 1922 to 1945.” Indeed, the print is distinguished by a nuanced tonality and high level of detail.
It is also possible that this print was made by Welcher, likely to Lange’s specifications during the period they worked together. Welcher was a sensitive and scrupulous interpreter of Lange’s photographs, and his prints of her images that have come to market all share the same high degree of print quality and rich tonality as the print offered here. In a 1966 interview, Welcher described the experience of working with Lange: “My association with Dorothea was more than that of a businessman and a client. There was an empathy. Many times Dorothea had only to say a word or two and I immediately grasped what she meant . . . As for myself, I can say this was truly a labor of love. It is not very often that one gets the opportunity to be a part of the history of art” (“Dorothea Lange and Her Printer,” Popular Photography, Volume 59, No. 1, July 1966, p. 70).
Provenance
Literature