Migrant Mother, Nipomo, California

Artist Dorothea Lange (American, 1895 - 1965)

DateMarch 1936; printed ca. 1960

MediumGelatin silver print

DimensionsImage and sheet: 13 5/16 × 10 3/8 inches (33.81 × 26.35 cm)
Mount: 13 5/16 × 10 3/8 inches (33.81 × 26.35 cm)

Credit LineGift of Hallmark Cards, Inc.

Object number2005.27.305

SignedArtist's stamp on mount verso, bottom, in black ink: "PHOTOGRAPH BY / DOROTHEA LANGE / 1163 EUCLID AVENUE / BERKELEY / CALIFORNIA"

Inscribednone

MarkingsOn mount verso, center, in blue pen: "LC 9058C"

On View

Not on view

Collections

Photography

Terms

DescriptionImage of a woman with her hand on her chin and a baby asleep in her lap. Two children, facing away from the viewer, rest on her shoulders.Exhibition History

Exhibition History

Celebrating a Grand Gift: The Hallmark Photographic Collection. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, January 10 – April 30, 2006, no cat.

Rotation 2. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, October 24, 2007 – March 19, 2008, no cat.

Rotation 6. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, July 13 – December 7, 2009, no cat.

Rotation 11. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, September 17, 2011 – March 18, 2012, no cat.

This Land: Picturing a Changing America in the 1930s and 1940s. Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR, August 31, 2013 – January 6, 2014, no cat.

Dignity vs. Despair: Dorothea Lange and the Depression Era Photographers, 1933-1941. The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, MO, June 23 – November 26, 2017, no cat.

Gallery Label

Dorothea Lange began as a professional portrait photographer in the early 1920s. The social calamity of the Depression prodded her to leave the studio to document the nation's dispossessed. In her work for the Farm Security Administration in 1936, she recorded this migrant pea-picker, 32-year-old Florence Thompson, with three of her children. Lange had the uncanny ability to see people as both individuals and as representative types: to recognize the iconic in the ordinary. Lange's migrant mother becomes a symbol of both strife and fortitude in the face of adversity, suggesting the condition of millions of her fellow Americans.

Information about a particular artwork or image, including provenance information, is based upon historic information and may not be currently accurate or complete. Research on artwork and images is an ongoing process, and the information about a particular artwork or image may not reflect the most current information available to the Museum. If you notice a mistake or have additional information about a particular artwork or image, please e-mail provenance@nelson-atkins.org.