Dorothea Lange’s grandchildren, Lisa Perrin and Gregor Dixon, recall their great-aunt, Rebecca Dixon, in Dorothea Lange’s portrait.
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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. 68 Dorothea Lange and Beaumont Newhall, Dorothea Lange Looks at the American Country Woman, p. 15 Naomi Rosenblum, Sally Stein, et al., Dorothea Lange: The Human Face, p. 91 Therese Heyman, John Szarkowski, and Sandra Phillips, Dorothea Lange: American Photographs, pl. 118
Catalogue Essay
The subject of this photograph is Rebecca Dixon Chambers, the sister of Dorothea Lange’s first husband, Maynard Dixon, known by the family as Aunt Reb.
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.
1954 Gelatin silver print, printed later. 9 1/4 x 12 5/8 in. (23.5 x 32.1 cm) A family collection stamp and exposure notations in an unidentified hand in pencil on the verso.