Men Cradling Wheat, Near Sperryville, Virginia

Artist Dorothea Lange (American, 1895-1965)

CultureAmerican

Date1936, printed 1984

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsOverall, Image: 7 1/8 × 9 3/8 in. (18.1 × 23.8 cm)
Overall, Paper: 7 3/4 × 9 13/16 in. (19.7 × 24.9 cm)
Overall, Mat: 16 × 19 15/16 in. (40.6 × 50.6 cm)

Credit LineMuseum purchase, Horace W. Goldsmith Fund

Object number84.78.122

Not on view

DescriptionGelatin silver print photograph.

Label Texttop Dorothea Lange American, 1895–1965 Men Cradling Wheat, Near Sperryville, Virginia, June 1936 Gelatin silver print (photograph), printed 1984 Museum purchase 84.78.122 bottom Marion Post Wolcott American, 1910–1990 Corn Shocks and Split Rail Fence Near Marion, W. Va., October 1940 Gelatin silver print (photograph) Museum purchase 85.69 In the late 1930s, Dorothea Lange and Marion Post Wolcott traveled throughout the rural South and Midwest to take photographs for the Farm Security Administration. The government agency was created to combat poverty during the Depression, and their photographs served to justify federal economic assistance programs. In the image above, two men harvest wheat by hand, while in the image below corn stalks in bundles dry in the sun. Both photographs show humans living in perfect harmony with the land, but many viewers would have seen the farming as pitifully outdated. The men in Lange’s photograph, for example, told her they had never heard of a combine harvester, a machine then widely used on modern farms. ProvenancePurchased prints from Library of Congress (negatives on file at Library of Congress,) 1984.Exhibition History"Mountaineers to Main Streets: The Old Dominion as seen through the Farm Security Administration Photographs," Large Changing Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, May 3 - June 16, 1985. "A History of Photography: 15 Years of Photography at the Chrysler Museum," The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA; Sept. 11, 1993 - March 6, 1994. "I'll take my stand: American Art in the Great Depression," Daura Gallery, Lynchburg College, March 14 - April 21, 2002. "The World of Photography," Alice R. and Sol B. Frank Photo Galleries, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, June 20, 2007 - May 25, 2008. "New Light on Land: Photographs from the Chrysler Collection," Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, VA, January 28 - May 15, 2016.Published ReferencesBrooks Johnson. _Mountaineers to Main Streets: The Old Dominion as seen through the Farm Security Administration Photographs_ The Chrysler Museum, Norfolk, VA. 1985: p. 10.