- Woman of the High Plains, Texas Panhandle
Sheet: 36 1/2 × 31 3/8 in. (92.7 × 79.7 cm)
Explore Further
From 1935 to 1939, Dorothea Lange worked for the U.S. government’s Farm Security Administration, tasked with recording the lives of Americans hit hardest by the double punch of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl. Her moving portrait of Nettie Featherston, slender and destitute against the backdrop of the Texas high plains, is emblematic of the era’s depleted land, bodies, and spirits. Nettie’s solitary despair, like the uncaring landscape that surrounds her, is inescapable. Produced under Lange’s supervision shortly before her death, this exceptionally large print was made for her solo exhibition at New York’s Museum of Modern Art.
ProvenanceEx-collection of The Museum of Modern Art, New York; [Sotheby’s New York, April 2, 2020, Lot 38]; [Howard Greenberg, New York]; purchased by MFAH, 2021.
Inscriptions, Signatures and Marks
Inscribed in pencil, verso, lower left: No 90 [underlined] [inside cropping lines]
[cropping lines on all corners]
Cataloguing data may change with further research.
If you have questions about this work of art or the MFAH Online Collection please contact us.