Walker Evans

mounted, signed and dated in pencil on the mount, titled in pencil and the annotation 'RA8144A' on the reverse, 1936, printing date unknown

The photographer to Virginia Hubbard

Marty Carey, as agent, to Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York

Acquired by Bonni Benrubi Gallery, New York, from the above

Acquired from the above

Other prints of this image: James Agee and Walker Evans, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men, unpaginated; Walker Evans: Photographs for the Farm Security Administration, pl. 338; Szarkowski, Walker Evans, p. 100; Hill, Walker Evans at Work, p. 129; Rosenheim, et al, Walker Evans, pl. 101; Mora and Hill, Walker Evans: The Hungry Eye, pl. 209; Hill, Walker Evans: Lyric Documentary, p. 197

The print is on semi-glossy paper and is in very good condition. The print delivers a great deal of detail. The predominant tones are mid-tones and lighter; although there is absolute-black visible in several of the cracks and interstitial areas of the wall. It is a crisp and expertly-rendered print. Close examination reveals some minor wear, and scant emulsion loss, in the prints corners – this is not immediately apparent. When the print is examined very closely in raking light, a number of very fine indentations can be seen in the surface, none of which breaks the emulsion. None of these issues detract from the overwhelmingly fine appearance of this print. The print is mounted to thick, white, rigid board. It is difficult to date the mount: it is unlike the bright white museum-board typically used by Evans in the 1970s, nor does it have the look of older, illustration-type, board. It is likely that the print pre-dates the board, and was affixed to the mount by Evans significantly after its making. The mount shows some faint, almost transparent, staining on the front; this is slightly more pervasive on the reverse. While the printing date of this photograph is unknown, there are a number of factors which contribute to the likelihood that it is an early print. Its appearance and slightly warm tonality suggest a print of some age, as does the presence of faint silvering in the print's few dark areas. Further, it does not appear to fluoresce when examined under ultraviolet light.
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Walker Evans authority Jeff Rosenheim points out that the photograph offered here is one of only two interior views taken within the house of the Fields family, one of the poor Alabama tenant-farmer families that Walker Evans and James Agee featured in their book Let Us Now Praise Famous Men.   Rosenheim notes that 'the splint of wood holding the utensils climbed up the wall as the children grew, making the meager arrangement a virtual map of the family's growth.'  Despite Agee's characteristically meticulous account of the Fieldses' kitchen in the book, he ultimately defers to Evans's photograph to describe the room: 'In the opposite side of the kitchen is a small bare table from which they eat: and on the walls, what you may see in one of the photographs'  (Walker Evans, p. 94). 

As is frequently the case with Walker Evans photographs, it is difficult to establish a definitive printing date for the photograph offered here.  A visual examination of the photographic paper reveals faint silvering and other signs of age appropriate for an older print.