Dorothea Lange - Dorothea Lange: The Family Collection New York Monday, October 3, 2022 | Phillips
  • First Born, Berkeley, California, shows Lange’s son John Dixon holding his first son, Lange’s first grandchild, Gregor Dixon. The image initially gained fame for its inclusion in The Family of Man exhibition at The Museum of Modern Art in 1955, and in the accompanying book. The image also marks the beginning of Lange’s focus, late in her life, on her family as photographic subject matter. Upon the birth of her second grandson, Andrew Dixon, Lange made a sequel to this image entitled Second Born, Berkeley, 1955.

     

    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.

     

    Dorothea Lange’s grandchildren, Lisa Perrin, Andrew Dixon, and Gregor Dixon, discuss Lange’s image of their father holding his first child, Gregor, First Born, Berkely.

     

     

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    • Provenance

      Collection of Dorothea Lange
      By descent to the present owners

    • Literature

      John Szarkowski, The Museum of Modern Art, Dorothea Lange, p. 74
      Sarah Hermanson Meister, Dorothea Lange: Words & Pictures, p. 113
      Pierre Borhan, Dorothea Lange: The Heart and Mind of a Photographer, p. 249
      Therese Heyman, John Szarkowski, and Sandra Phillips, Dorothea Lange: American Photographs, p. 58
      Naomi Rosenblum, Sally Stein, et al., Dorothea Lange: The Human Face, p. 72
      Elizabeth Partridge, Restless Spirit: The Life and Work of Dorothea Lange, p. 99

Dorothea Lange: The Family Collection

30

First Born, Berkeley, California

1952
Gelatin silver print, printed 1950s or 1960s.
9 1/2 x 7 3/4 in. (24.1 x 19.7 cm)
A family collection stamp and exposure notations in an unidentified hand in pencil on the verso.

Full Cataloguing

Estimate
$5,000 - 7,000 

Sold for $6,300

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