Thomas David Stimson
1927
This photograph of Thomas David Stimson is a rare early portrait photograph by Dorothea Lange. The work was printed in Oakland in 1927, where Lange had set up a commercial portrait studio. Thomas David Stimson (1919-1993) was the son of Thomas D. and Emma Baillargeon Stimson. Emma was an early Board member of the Seattle Art Museum, and First Vice-President of the Board and Acting Director of the museum during World War II. The photograph is a surprisingly intense portrait of the young boy and displays the psychological qualities that made Lange’s portraits during the Depression era so famous. This early photograph is characteristic of the work she made at the San Francisco studio in 1927-28, notably portraits of children and families.
Lange is celebrated as one of the leading American modernist documentary photographers and photo-journalists. She is especially known for her Depression-era photographs of migrants and sharecroppers. After the attack on Pearl Harbor, Lange trained her camera on different social and political issues, this time photographing families at Japanese internment camps.
Gelatin silver print
9 5/8 × 7 3/4in. (24.4 × 19.7cm)
Gift of Janet, David, and Deborah Stimson in memory of their father, Thomas David Stimson
2013.17
Provenance: Commissioned from the artist by Thomas Douglas and Emma Baillargeon Stimson, Seattle, 1927; to their son, Thomas David Stimson, Seattle; to his daughter, Janet Stimson, Shoreline, Washington
Photo: Elizabeth Mann
