White Angel Breadline
Artist
Dorothea Lange
(American, 1895-1965)
CultureAmerican
Date1932, printed 1950s
MediumGelatin silver print
DimensionsOverall, Image: 13 7/16 × 10 3/8 in. (34.1 × 26.4 cm)
Overall, Paper: 13 15/16 × 10 15/16 in. (35.4 × 27.8 cm)
Overall, Mat: 24 × 20 in. (61 × 50.8 cm)
Overall, Paper: 13 15/16 × 10 15/16 in. (35.4 × 27.8 cm)
Overall, Mat: 24 × 20 in. (61 × 50.8 cm)
InscribedPhotographer's stamp on the verso: DL-CAL-EB-718; verso: C in ink stamp: Photograph by/Dorothea Lange/1163
Credit LineGift of Edwynn Houk
Object number2001.5
Not on view
DescriptionThis is a gelatin silver print. It depicts a group of men standing, most of them with their backs to the camera with the exception of one man, who leans on a wooden rail with a mug between his forearms.Label TextDorothea Lange American (1895-1965) White Angel Breadline, San Francisco, 1932 Gelatin-silver print, printed 1950s Gift of Edwynn Houk 2001.5 After nearly ten years of working as a portrait photographer in San Francisco, in the 1930s Dorothea Lange broke with her commercial work and turned to the streets for subject matter. She had experienced mounting anger over the economic tragedy of the Great Depression and at last felt compelled to capture its grim effects first-hand. The "White Angel Breadline" was a San Francisco soup kitchen located close to Lange's studio. She shot the site on her first day as a street photographer, and, as she later said, that momentous day's shoot finally focused her powers of perception and the revealed the clarity needed to "capture it." The "it" Lange sought was the effect of economic strain on the human soul and the slow crumbling of the spirit as it desperately clung to hope. ProvenanceGift of Edwynn Houk, a descendant of Dorothea Lange, to the Chrysler Museum, 2001. Exhibition History"History of Photography," Alice R. and Sol B. Frank Photography Galleries, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va, Fall, 2001. "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. "Women of the Chrysler: a 400-Year Celebration of the Arts," Large Changing Gallery, Chrysler Museum of Art, Norfolk, Va., March 24 - July 18, 2010. "American Appetite: Selections from the Chrysler Museum of Art," Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, VA, February 6 - June 6, 2021.
Dorothea Lange
1938, printed ca. 1984
