Dorothea Lange

large-format, mounted, framed, 1936, probably printed in the mid-1950s

The photographer to Irwin Welcher

By descent to an heir

Howard Greenberg Gallery, New York

Irving Galleries, Palm Beach, 1999

John Szarkowski, Dorothea Lange (The Museum of Modern Art, 1966), p. 25

Therese Thau Heyman, Celebrating a Collection: The Work of Dorothea Lange (The Oakland Museum, 1978), p. 61

Dorothea Lange: Photographs of a Lifetime (Aperture, 1982), p. 77

Therese Thau Heyman, Sandra S. Phillips, and John Szarkowski, Dorothea Lange: American Photographs (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 1994), pl. 1

Keith F. Davis, The Photographs of Dorothea Lange (Kansas City, 1995), p. 45

Peter Galassi, American Photography 1890-1965 (The Museum of Modern Art, 1995), p. 148

Dorothea Lange: The Human Face (Aosta, 1998), p. 99

Pierre Borhan, Dorothea Lange: The Heart and Mind of a Photographer (Boston, 2002), p. 133

Mark Durden, Dorothea Lange 55 (New York, 2001), cover and unpaginated

This is a large and dramatic print of Lange's iconic image and is one of the largest extant prints of it. It is on lightly-textured paper with a surface sheen. It is in generally very good condition. There is very little wear with miniscule chipping at the edges and corners. The upper left and right corners are creased approximately 2-inches, which likely occurred prior to mounting. In raking light, the following are visible: a small raised area in the child's neck, likely a particle trapped between the print and mount during mounting; a 1/2-inch crescent-shaped crease near the lower right edge; a few tiny matte deposits, likely original retouching; and a 4-inch thin glossy deposit of indeterminate nature in the lower left quadrant. In the lower right corner, there is a 1/4-inch thin loss that appears to have been filled. None of these issues detracts from the impressive appearance of this print. The print is mounted to heavy off-white board. There are a few small rust-colored droplet deposits of indeterminate nature on the front, and light soiling from handling on the reverse. When examined under ultraviolet light, this print does not appear to fluoresce.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California, was the inspiration for the collection of photographs offered in the present catalogue.  Lange’s image of endurance in the face of overwhelming odds is one of a handful of photographs that have become part of the collective visual memory of the twentieth century.  In the decades since its making, the photograph has surpassed its origins in Nipomo, California, and has come to represent a universal aspect of the human condition.  As the late Robert Sobieszek wrote, few photographs of the poor and downtrodden, ‘fictive or otherwise, can match Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother of 1936 for its simplicity of means, its restrained pathos, and its mute autonomy of language’ (Masterpieces of Photography, p. 300).  

The large-format Migrant Mother offered here was printed by Irwin Welcher in San Francisco, presumably under Lange’s supervision.  Welcher, a master printer, had worked with photographers in the Bay Area in the 1950s and 1960s.  He had also printed many photographs for Edward Steichen’s 1955 Family of Man exhibition, including a print of Lange’s White Angel Breadline offered in these rooms in October 2008.   Most important, Irwin Welcher was the printer for the photographs used in the 1966 retrospective of Lange’s work at The Museum of Modern Art.  It is possible that the present print was made in conjunction with that exhibition. 

In an interview with Popular Photography’s Jacob Deschin in 1966, Welcher described the experience of printing for Lange for the Museum’s retrospective and how articulate she was in her instructions.   They began working together in the summer of 1965 and finished just a week before Lange died in October of that year.  ‘My association with Dorothea was more than that of a businessman and a client,’ Welcher said. ‘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).