Scanned from a transparency, then color corrected Pat Cagney.

Frame Houses In Fredericksburg, Virginia

Artist Walker Evans (American, 1903-1975)

CultureAmerican

Date1936

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsOverall, Image: 7 1/4 × 6 7/8 in. (18.4 × 17.5 cm)
Overall, Paper: 11 × 8 5/8 in. (27.9 × 21.9 cm)
Overall, Mat: 20 × 16 in. (50.8 × 40.6 cm)

InscribedSigned and dated by Walker Evans in pencil and titled, dated, and inscribed "Part Two, #22" by the photographer in ink on the mount.

Credit LinePurchase, Horace W. Goldsmith Foundation and the Art Purchase Fund

Object number92.33

Not on view

DescriptionThis is a street scene of frame houses in Fredericksburg, VA. It is mounted on card stock.

Label TextWalker Evans American (1903-1975) Frame Houses in Fredericksburg, Virginia, 1936 Gelatin-silver print Purchase, Horace W. Goldsmith and Art Purchase Funds 92.33 Walker Evans was responsible for the emergence in 1930s American photography of a new, more literary, less dramatic conception of documentary description. Drawing upon the work of French photographer Eugène Atget, Evans made head-on, highly detailed images of Americans and the material manifestations of their indigenous cultures. Employed by the Farm Security Administration (FSA) project from 1935 to 1938, this is one of only two photographs made in Virginia by Evans during that time. Evans' photographs have appeared in several important books, including Let Us Now Praise Famous Men (1941) on which he collaborated with the writer James Agee. In 1938, Evans had the first solo photography exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City. In conjunction with the exhibition, a book titled American Photographs was published. The exhibition and book are widely recognized as a landmark event in the history of photography. This print was used in the maquette for the first edition of American Photographs. It is mounted on a board which has three notebook binder holes punched on the left side. The majority of the other prints from the maquette can be found in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum. In addition to this image, Evans made a second frontal view of the same row of houses. The Chrysler Museum collection includes several variant prints of both of those photographs. Those, along with two more from other bodies of work, bring the total number of Evans prints in the Chrysler collection to seven. Edited By: GLY Edited Date: 11/07/2003Exhibition History"Treasures for the Community: The Chrysler Collects, 1989-1996," October 25, 1996 - March 2, 1997 "American Photographs," Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY, 1938. "Silver Images: The Photography Collection at 25," Alice R. and Sol B. Frank Photo Galleries, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., November 5, 2003 - August 2004. Published ReferencesWalker Evans, AMERICAN PHOTOGRAPHS (NY: 1938), pl. 22. PHOTOGRAPHS, Sotheby's, New York, Sale of Thursday, October 15, 1992, No. 171, ill.